His Master, the Crazy
by Sambari
Summary: A young Riku is best friends with a teen-aged Sora. They play in the forest together often, and being Riku's only friend, Sora is the only thing he looks forwards to every day. One day, Sora tells him that he must go on a vacation; Riku automatically wants to go with him. Sora agreed to take him, but little did he know, the vacation Sora took him on would be a permanent one.
1. Chapter 1

AUTHORS'S NOTE: Kingdom Hearts characters do not belong to me! This story is **YAOI**! Don't like, don't read!** Rated M** for later scenes!

Another thing to note: This is an **adult!Sora x child!Riku** story so if you aren't into shota, don't read this.

This is my story for NaNoWriMo. I decided to share it on here for anyone who wanted to read.

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It was a semi-sunny day in the country named Reildro. Across these vast lands was a wondrous countryside full of farmland and forests of tall, beautiful trees. The day seemed almost perfect. A young boy ran through the fields of one of the many farmed areas; tall wheat that towered over the youngster and was near ready to be harvested, rustled just slightly as the boy rushed past. The boy had silver hair that went down to approximately his neck, had bright blue eyes, and had pale skin. The boy's clothing was rather deplorable, loose strings on the hems of his shirt and shorts and holes littered all about them. Along with that, he wore no shoes, however didn't care about the rough terrain his feet ran on top of. He was determined to get where he was going.

Within a few minutes, the boy had stopped. He reached the end of the golden fields. Now ahead of him, what marked the border of the farm that he lived on, was an old dirt road. Sometimes when he was wandering around the area, he'd see a few carriages roll down the worn path, but had always been a little too afraid to actually watch one of them. At the time, there were no carriages in sight. No sound of galloping hooves, no sound of wheels grinding against the rocky path, no sound of simple shoes treading the ground… perfect. The boy walked across the small road and went to the other side—he had to go there to get to his favorite spot in the world. Just across that road from his farm home was a wonderful, untamed and unclaimed forest. He enjoyed looking at the foliage and the small critters that lived in the undergrowth, but there was one particular thing he enjoyed the most.

"Sora!" The boy called out. Grinning slightly, the boy looked around for the person of which the name belonged. He walked around in a near stalking fashion, like a mountain lion preying on a sheep. He peered around the trunks of trees suspiciously, wondering where his friend could be hiding. "I know you're around here somewhere!" He declared.

After a little while of looking, the youngster was beginning to find it a challenge to hunt around. He made a slightly disappointed pout at the feeling of him losing at the unspoken game of hide-and-seek. "Maybe if I climb a tree so I can see around more…" He mumbled to himself. He walked around for a few moments more, staring upwards as he did so, looking for a good tree to find. Once he found one, he semi-clumsily began climbing up. Rather abruptly, he was snatched off the tree before he could ascend mere feet; there had been a sudden laugh. The person to have plucked the boy from the tree had his arms wrapped around the boy. "I've caught you, Riku!" The person declared. The silverette, Riku, squirmed and laughed, trying to look up at his captor. "Sora, stop it~!" He said.

The elder male, Sora, let out a chuckle and set Riku down on the ground. Sora was dressed in good clothes, entirely the opposite of Riku's attire. He was wearing nothing but a silken red shirt and darker blue pants. The clothing looked rather clashy, but he didn't seem to care. "Have you missed me?" He cooed to his younger accomplice. In response, he received a playfully-mannered shove. "I only just saw you yesterday." Riku told with a giggle. "How could I possibly miss you when it's been onety-four hours?"

"Onety-four?" Sora repeated. "Are you sure you aren't meaning to say, "twenty-four" instead?" He snickered. Riku gave the brunette a confused stare for a moment before fidgeting in embarrassment. "Whenever people say how many hours are in a day, it sounds like onety-four…" His voice trailed off and was suddenly very sheepish about it. Riku's hair was ruffled by a hand. "No need to fuss. I found that real cute~" Sora smiled.

"Can we play hide-and-seek again?" Riku questioned, changing the subject. Sora shrugged in response. "Sure." He mused, despite having no clue that they had even been playing the game previously.

A few hours passed of the two friends playing various games to entertain themselves in the forest, however the duo was now simply relaxing in a nice patch of sunlight that shone through the little canopy of the trees. "Sora, do you have eyes in the back of your head?" Riku was laying right next to Sora on the ground, one arm of Sora's wrapped slightly around him and he himself snuggled close to his side. Sora chuckled. "What kind of a question is that? Of course I don't." He stated. As if to confirm, he reached back with his free hand and touched his head.

"Oh." Riku responded in a slightly disappointed manner. "My mom told me that all adults have eyes in the back of their heads, and she's one of them. It's not fun! It's like, even if she isn't watching me, she's still watching me. I can't steal a little morsel or anything without her knowing." He pouted.

Sora let out a soft laugh. "Your rations are supposed to be limited. You shouldn't have been stealing them in the first place." He said. "But if you really are hungry, how about I bring a little picnic tomorrow for the both of us? It could be a little parting gift." He smiled.

"A picnic?" The silverette repeated. "Oh, boy! I've never had one of those!" He randomly wriggled around slightly to show his excitement. "Can you bring cake? I've never eaten that before, and mama says it's real—" Suddenly, he stopped himself from speaking, and got a confused expression. "… Parting gift?"

Sora nodded. "I unfortunately have to leave." He said. "My family wants me to go to my other home. It's closer to the heart of the country. I haven't a clue how long I will be there, but it is certainly going to be a very extended stay. We won't be able to see each other for a few months at the least." He frowned at the thought of being separated from his younger friend. Not a moment later, though, he suddenly made a happy grin. "But you'll be okay without me, of course! After all, all this practice at hide-and-seek will help you stay away from the monsters that live here." He said.

Riku gawked. "Monsters?" He questioned. He looked around in a slightly panicked fashion. "They aren't here right now, are they?" He asked. Sora laughed, "But of course! They're everywhere!" He said. "Usually during the day, there will be Cyclops looking around. His favorite food is the bones of little boys." He said. "They like eating the kids because grown-up people have rotten, old meat." He explained. "The Cyclops goes to bed right when the sun starts setting, and that's when the dragons come out. They gobble up whole families and still got room for more in their bellies." He grinned.

"Stop telling me that stuff!" Riku exclaimed with a pout. "It's scary. I know for sure that they aren't real, because I never see them outside when I'm at home." He said. "Are you sure?" Was the response he received, making him feel rather uncertain.

Sora reached out and ruffled Riku's hair once again. "Don't worry~" He cooed. "I was just joking. I promise. The only thing that's out there to get you is maybe a couple of mean dogs or some crazy raccoon." He said. Riku just turned away from Sora and onto his side and he covered his ears. "Those are mean too, though! And I know for sure that those ones are real." He huffed. "Stop telling me these things." The silverette crossed his arms and shut his eyes to try and show how displeased he was with his elder.

Sora watched and snickered softly. "Oh well~" He said simply. "Just be careful of them." He warned. "Plenty of monsters would love to have you." He gave a smile to Riku before unwrapping his arm from the boy and standing up, holding his hand out to help the younger one up. "I believe I have to go now. It's getting a little bit late, so you should probably leave too." He said, pointing up into the air. The sky was not dark, however the sun was not in sight. It must have been behind the tree line by now.

"Oh." Riku responded in a murmur, suddenly looking disappointed about Sora leaving and him going home. He took Sora's hand and stood up. "You promise that you'll bring a picnic tomorrow?" He asked. "Pinky promise?" The silverette let go of Sora's hand once he was upright and held his own hand out, sticking only his pinky out towards his friend. Sora smiled and reached out, briefly curling his own pinky finger around the youngster's and shaking his hand. "I pinky promise that I'll bring you a picnic." He said. "Oh, and make sure it has cake!" Riku specified. "And maybe you can come here early too, so we have more time to play?" He grinned. Sora chuckled and patted Riku's head, clearing his hair out of his face and leaning down. Sora gave Riku a small kiss on the forehead before straightening himself again. "See you later~" He cooed before walking away from the boy.

Riku watched the brunette leave. He grinned and waved. "Tomorrow!" He said. He dashed through the forest back to his plantation home, now excited to tell his mother about what he and Sora did. He and his friend had played in the forest so often that he memorized the pathway home and always knew which direction to go in when he was among the trees. Exiting the forest, he simply ran across the dirt road, and back into the field of wheat. On the days that Sora walked him out to that road, he noticed that Sora always began walking down it. His mother had warned him to never go down that path, that there were dangers if you went too far. Riku never understood why; Sora went down that path every day or so and he was never harmed. Pushing that brief thought away, he continued on through the golden crops before reaching his home.

The boy's home was unlike what the country to be considered _normal _people. In this place, and in most of the world around them, there were but three classes; the slaves, the commoners, and the wealthy. Riku's small family was among the 'slave' class. He was too young to work by the country's law, but was getting dangerously close to the proper age to do so. His mother had already been working for quite some time on the plantation. The home that they lived in was in a rather deplorable condition, looking like it was made completely by hand, as if the constructionists used no tools to aid them. There were no windows or running water in the home and the floor was made of dirt. Due to Riku having known nothing else, he believed his house to be perfectly good living quarters. In fact, he'd never been inside of an actual house at all.

Riku had slowed to more of a trot while locating his own home. There were rows and rows of them on the plantation that many slaves all lived in, and all looked nearly identical. Once he found the correct 'house', he smiled happily and went up to the door. He opened it and stepped inside. "Mama, you'll never guess what Sora told me today~!" He exclaimed happily to his mother, whom of which had been cooking over a small, also-hand-made looking stove. The woman had dark brown hair and matching brown eyes, obviously not traits that Riku picked up for himself. She chuckled softly. "What did he tell you?" She asked.

"Well, first when I went to the forest, me and him played a lotta hide and seek." Riku explained. "It was real fun. We got tired after a while though so we just laid down on the ground and talked about stuff. He said that tomorrow, he has to leave for a long time, but before he leaves, he's gonna come here early in the morning so me and him can have a picnic. I told him that he's supposed to bring me cake, so hopefully he does." The boy grinned happily in anticipation to hear his mother's reaction.

"That's nice!" His mother responded with a smile. "Save me a little snack from that picnic, okay~? For right now, though, dinner is nearly ready." She stated, glancing briefly at the little pot that was on the stove. The food inside was some kind of broth; not one of Riku's favorite meals, but he had been taught to eat when he could. "Maybe tomorrow when I play with Sora, he'll give me enough food to be full for the rest of the day." Riku said.

"Hopefully so." His mother murmured. She was now more focused on cooking. In all honesty, she truly hadn't believed that Riku's friend even existed. From her observations, Riku had never played with any of the other children on the plantation and seemed content to having none of them as friends. Almost all he ever talked about was Sora. She could recall someone telling her about how young children usually had imaginary friends, but Riku wasn't all that young; he was nine years old. Perhaps it's just a thing of his that will blow over in a few more months, she thought.

A little while later when the broth had finished cooking and had been eaten, Riku had started becoming anxious to go outside again. "Please, can I go?" He looked up to his mother expectantly. He hated being cooped up inside for long periods of time. He was immediately disappointed when his mother shook her head. "It's dark outside now. You can go out tomorrow morning."

Riku huffed and crossed his arms. Deciding to not have that small discussion with his mom anymore, he went over to the one bed in the single-room house and laid down, curling into a fetal position on just the corner of the bed and closest to the wall. Both he and his mother shared the one bed. Usually he was comfortable sleeping next to her, but he felt that tonight wouldn't be fun. He tugged the thin, tattered blanket over himself tightly and let out a puff of air and he hoped that he would be able to fall asleep before his mom even went to bed. Luckily for him, he did.

The next morning, Riku was up at the crack of dawn. Despite waking so early for his age, it wasn't early for anyone else. All of the adults on the plantation went to work before the sun rose. Riku was much too excited for the picnic Sora promised him, quickly running a very old and used comb through his hair before hurrying out the door of his home and going to the forest. Usually when he was out early in the morning, he wasn't allowed to go through the field, because people would be working there. He could see a few people beginning to cut bushels of wheat, but nothing else. He went right through the field to save him the time of walking all the way around it.

Once the silverette got across the road, he navigated his way through the trees with some degree of expertise. It took him a few minutes to find where he would usually see Sora at; this time, however, he went to the small clearing that he and Sora had been at the night previous, before the both of them had to go home. "You lay down blankets when you have a picnic, so this place is perfect." He grinned a bit to himself. He didn't see Sora anywhere around, but didn't mind having to wait. He sat down on the dew-coated grass and decided to watch the clouds for a little.

Riku saw some strange things in the clouds. One of them either looked like a mountain lion with a sword in its mouth or a very long tongue. And it only had three legs. He stared at that particular cloud with curiosity before looking at a different cloud… the next one just looked like an indistinguishable blob. He continued on for a few minutes, watching the clouds roll past and deciding what they looked like as they moved overhead. The wind up there must have been moving fairly quickly, because he didn't have to wait for long for another cloud to show up. A little while later, some grey clouds started showing up, all bunched up into one big cloud and signifying that it might rain. The sight of that disappointed Riku. He looked around in the hopes of Sora suddenly appearing, but he didn't for quite some time. He really hoped that the picnic wouldn't be rained out.

Riku let out a sigh. How early in the morning did Sora mean, exactly, when he had said the picnic would be before he left? Perhaps Sora lived a long ways away, and was travelling there right at that moment. Sora had never told Riku where he lived; when he did ask, he only received a response that he lived in another town. The silverette had lived on the plantation his entire life; he'd been to the nearby market just a few times, however had never gone anywhere else other than there, if he didn't count the forest and the plantation as places he'd been.

Approximately thirty minutes passed before Sora finally arrived. The sun was not shining whatsoever anymore in the sky and the entire world above was covered with dark grey clouds. "Finally!" Riku pouted at the sight of Sora, whom of which had no picnic basket or any food on him. "I was worried that you'd get here and it'd be all rainy. What took you so long?" He asked.

Sora snickered lightly. "What are you talking about? It doesn't take me too long to get here." He said. "How long were you waiting here?" He questioned. "A million hours!" Riku insisted. "Now, can we get to eat? Did you bring cake like I wanted?"

"Relax!" Sora laughed a bit at Riku's exaggeration. "Rain was already sprinkling when I left home. Do you perhaps want to eat inside of the carriage? It isn't too huge, but we can still eat in there." He stated.

Riku suddenly let out a gasp. "Really?!" He asked in sudden excitement. "I've never been in a carriage before! Is it fancy?" He asked. He jumped up from the ground; he had still been sitting beforehand. "Let's go, let's go!" He said, grabbing Sora's hand and tugging on it.

"Alright~" Sora replied, laughing once more at Riku's excited manner. "It's a pretty good carriage, but it isn't the greatest. I don't typically use the best ones I have because I don't want to attract robbers of some sort. The best ones are only for when I want to make an appearance of some sort." He said. Riku stared, now in somewhat confusion as he and Sora began to walk out of the forest. "You have more than one?" He questioned. Sora nodded. "I have five." He said in response. "Wow, you must be rich!"

Upon reaching the carriage, Riku was amazed. It was much fancier than any carriage he had seen before. The carriage was built out of a beautiful red-colored wood, shiny silver metal outlining the edges and corners of the vehicle. The wheels had positively perfect looking spokes, each one of them undamaged and expertly crafted. All of the spokes seemed to be exactly evenly spaced between one another. The wheels looked to be made of some black metal, so the person to have built it would have had to possess many skills. Leading the carriage were two beautiful, solid black horses. Their hooves were unable to be seen, covered by long, neat looking feathers. Each equine's short fur shone without the need of sunlight, showing that the two were well cared for.

Quickly distracted by the horses instead of the carriage its' self, Riku went over to the two curiously. "Can I touch them?" He asked hopefully. Once he saw Sora nod in response, he went to the closest horse and petted it somewhat gingerly. Despite living on the plantation and having seen plough horses from afar working on the fields, he had never touched or interacted with any of the four legged giants. The horse blinked and snorted softly , causing Riku to draw his hand away in hesitation and pausing for a moment before reaching out once again and touching the horse's muzzle. He smiled at the feeling.

"They're Friesian horses." Sora said, watching Riku with somewhat interest, curious to see his reaction towards the equines. "The one you're petting now is named Duchess. She's very friendly." He said. He stepped closer to Riku and lightly patted Duchess's rump before pulling his hand away. "Their fur looks clean, but it may have gotten a bit dirty coming over here. Don't pet her too much, so you have clean hands for eating." He said.

Riku seemed a little confused by needing to keep his hands clean to eat. On the occasion, he'd rinse them off if they were entirely covered with mud or some other substance, but he never had truly eaten with 'clean' hands. He pulled his hand away and stared at it for a moment. "It looks clean, though…" He said.

Sora just made a little smile. "They do look clean, yes, but they aren't. For now, you'll just have to wipe them off on a cloth. It should be clean enough afterwards." Sora then went over to the door of the carriage and opened it up for Riku. The door of the vehicle had a window centered close to the top of it, and on the inside part of the door there had been a curtain protecting it from sunlight shining through and prying eyes from trying to look through.

Riku looked towards the door and was again interested by the carriage. He grinned and walked over to Sora, hopping up into the carriage once he was close enough to the door. "This is cool!" He said happily when inside. There were two black plush seats on the right and left side of the carriage, just about large enough for Riku to lay down on comfortably, and three little drawers underneath each seat. On one of the seats sat a large picnic basket.

Sora stepped into the carriage and shut the door. "Do you like it?" He asked with a smile. He sat down on the seat with the basket, opening the two-part lid and unraveling the blanket that had bundled the food all together inside. "You can sit on the floor and use the seat like a table, if you want." He told Riku. He pulled out a plate and held it out to Riku. "Choose what you want to eat." He smiled.

Riku took the fancy-looking plate and looked inside of the picnic basket with a grin. "Is there cake?" He asked with a grin. Sora chuckled slightly. "That's not an actual meal. You can eat it for dessert." He said. "There should be a sandwich in there for you." He said.

Riku reached into the basket and dug around for a moment. He could see plenty more food than just a sandwich. "I can eat more than just that, right?" He asked. "Of course~" Was the response he received.

Riku first pulled out a green apple from the basket. He set it down on his plate, but due to how Riku was holding the plate, it was rolling around and was dangerously close to falling off of the china. To prevent that from happening, Riku simply sat his plate down onto the unoccupied seat behind himself. He turned back to the picnic basket and looked through the foods inside of there for just a little bit before finding what he was looking for; the sandwich. He picked it out of the rest of the foods and sat that down on his plate as well. There was some kind of meat between the two pieces of bread, along with some cheese. It was a fairly simple sandwich, but Riku was happy to have it. Finally, he had taken some crackers from the basket.

"There's some jam and biscuits, too." Sora said as he reached into the basket and grabbed some silverware for Riku and held it out to him; a knife, a fork, and a spoon, despite the food being eaten at the time had no need for silverware to begin with. Riku took the utensils and put them on his plate as well, however simply grabbed his sandwich and took a fairly large bite out of it. He hadn't eaten in a little while, and had suddenly realized how hungry he was once he had gotten when he had food. "Ths ih guuh!" His words were nearly indistinguishable.

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Sora said. He grabbed the same things that Riku had taken from the basket. Somewhat oddly, when he placed the sandwich on the plate, he used a fork to cut into it and eat a small, perfectly square shape of it. He received a somewhat strange look from his younger accomplice. "Aren't sandwiches finger foods?" He asked once he had swallowed the large bite he had taken. "It's cleaner." Sora responded simply with a shrug.

Riku narrowed his eyes. "You're so fussy about clean things." He huffed. "Have you ever played in the mud at all or anything like that?" He asked. "I have!" Sora responded with a short frown. "I just don't like getting my hands dirty right before eating." He explained. Riku randomly gave Sora a suspicious stare for just a moment before taking another bite of his sandwich. "Wahever yuu say." He spoke with his mouth full on purpose.

The slightly tense feeling subsided while they had been eating their food. Once the pair were finished eating, Sora put the plates back into the basket. "I should probably be leaving now." He said with a slight frown. "The place I'm going is very far away from here. By this time, I'll probably be there way past nightfall." He reached over and gave Riku a short pat on the top of the head, his frown turning to a smile. "You'll be fine without me for a month or two, though, right?" He asked.

Riku made a frown. "Do you really have to go…?" He asked. He crawled over to the seat that Sora was on and sat next to him. "I don't want you to." He said. He leaned close to the brunette and hugged him, closing his eyes and snuggling close.

It felt nice to Sora when he was hugged. "I do." He said. "I won't be able to visit, either… if I came here at a reasonable time for you, I'd have to leave before the sun rose. Then we'd probably only get to play for an hour before I'd have to leave again so I could get home before midnight." He said. He hugged Riku back. "A few months really isn't that long…"

"I want to go with you!" Riku declared all of the sudden, opening his eyes and looking up at Sora with a halfway pleading, halfway determined expression. "I wouldn't be missed at all. None of the other kids on the plantation want to be friends with me." He said. He grasped at Sora's shirt and made a slight whimpering sound. "P-please?" He stammered slightly.

Sora stared at the child for a few seconds before his facial expression softened. "You…" He went silent for a moment, trying to decide what to do. He made a soft sigh. "You can." He stated. It was uncharacteristic for the elder to agree to something so quickly, but Riku didn't care at the time. The youngster immediately grinned happily and hugged Sora tighter. "Thank you~!" He said cheerfully.

Sora had a slightly displeased expression, as if he didn't know what to truly think of the sudden change of situation. He was simply wordless for a few moments. "… Would you like something to drink?" He questioned; neither of them had drank anything after their meal.

Riku nodded vigorously. "I'm thirsty!" He responded. "What is there to drink? Water?" He asked. He was confused when Sora shook his head and laughed softly. "Why would I bring water?" His elder questioned. He pulled open the middle drawer; inside were a few wine glasses and an unlabeled bottle with a dark red liquid inside. The brunette pulled out both of the glasses and gave one to Riku.

Riku held onto the glass incorrectly, gripping it with his full fist around the little column-like part of the glass and using his other hand to hold the actual cup part of it. "This looks fancy…" He murmured. "What is that?" He asked to Sora curiously as the brunette pulled the cork out of the top of the bottle. Immediately upon the container being opened, the small room was suddenly filled with the scent of strong alcohol. "It's wine." Sora stated as he poured Riku's glass about halfway full.

Riku studied the liquid curiously for a few moments. "Oh. Cool~" He said. He brought the glass up to his lips and suddenly swallowed all of the contents of the glass. "Don't do that!" Sora said quickly, abruptly taking Riku's glass away from him, leaving Riku with a confused expression. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Sora made a sigh. "You're not supposed to drink this all at one time." He said. "You wake up with a nasty headache in the morning if you just gulp it down." He frowned. "I can fetch you some medicine in a little while to help ebb the pain, I suppose." He said. Riku looked rather startled by what he was told. "R-Really!? It isn't too bad of a headache, right?" He whimpered pathetically. "How come you didn't tell me at first?" He whined.

"I didn't know you were going to drink it like that!" Sora huffed. "You can't blame me for that. You are your own undoing." He said. He decided to put the glass that Riku had back into the little cabinet drawer, however had kept his own glass out. He poured out about the same amount of wine that Riku had had in his glass. He then took only a sip of it. "You should probably have more watered-down wine from now on." He said.

"Yeah…" Riku responded. He was surprised at how immediate the effect of the large intake of alcohol had been. His vision was slightly blurred. He leaned against Sora and let out a soft huff of air. "I wanna nap." He mumbled into Sora's side.

"You can, if you want. I won't stop you." Sora randomly made a little snicker and petted Riku's head. "You can lay on the other seat if you'd like. " He said. Riku gripped onto Sora's shirt tighter and shook his head. "You gotta be my pillow." He mumbled tiredly.

Sora was quiet once again for a moment. "… Alright." He said. He looked down at Riku for a moment before giving his head a little pat. "Are you positive you don't want to lay down, though?" He asked as he used his free hand to move the picnic basket onto the floor, allowing for more room on the seat the two were on at the time. He shifted to the end of the seat to give Riku as much room as possible.

Riku quickly laid down on the seat once there was more room. He put his head on Sora's lap and closed his eyes. "You're a good pillow." He mumbled with a little grin. "You're a good blanket." Sora responded simply, glancing down at Riku once more before taking another sip of his wine and deciding to relax since he'd most likely be stuck in that one spot for a few hours, listening to the sounds of the light rain pattering on the roof.


	2. Chapter 2

Upon waking up, Riku was slightly startled to feel that the carriage had been moving. His head was no longer resting on Sora's lap and he instead had a pillow under his head along with a blanket covering his body. Sora had been sitting upright and was leaning against the wall of the carriage on the opposite sided seat and appeared to be dozing. Riku sat up and furrowed his brows, head aching quite badly. "Sora?" He asked, looking towards his brunette friend. "… Where are we?"

Sora opened his eyes and glanced around for just a moment. "Mmh… probably almost there." He responded in a somewhat sleepy voice. He stood up and moved the curtain away from the door of the carriage, peering outside with somewhat interest as to where they were. The scenery was roughly the same as it was before, but there was a mountain in the distance, and instead of wheat growing in the fields around them, there were large fields of cotton instead. It was still raining softly outside, however not as much as it had been earlier.

"Almost where?" Riku asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if he wanted to know where they were going. "On vacation." Sora responded with a slight smile. "You wanted to go, right~?" He asked, smiling more. Riku was quiet for a moment before his slightly panicked expression softened. "O-oh." He said. "I guess that's okay… I didn't get to tell my mom I'd be leaving, though." He said.

"Oh. Sorry." Sora responded with a slight, sheepish smile. He moved to the other side of the carriage and sat next to Riku, leaning close and kissing him shortly on his temple. Riku looked up at Sora and pouted. "Why do you always gotta kiss me?" He asked. "Boys are supposed to kiss girls." He said.

"A boy isn't strictly limited to kissing girls." Sora responded with a small shrug. "It could be anyone with anything." He snickered softly. "Even if he wanted to kiss a horse, he could." He stated. Riku stared in a rather confused fashion. "… Why would someone want to kiss a horse?" He questioned.

"Because some people treat horses like pets, as if they were cats or dogs. I guess it's understandable. Horses can be pretty friendly if they were raised right." Sora responded. "Most of the horses I have seem to be fairly friendly, but maybe it's just towards me. I am not entirely sure." He said. "But, they could be pets, and kissing them on the forehead wouldn't hurt. It's just a sign of affection." He smiled.

"Oh." Riku paused for a few moments. "… I am your pet?" He suddenly huffed and crossed his arms. "Because you've kissed me on the forehead plenty of times before." He said. "N-no!" Sora responded somewhat quickly. "I'm affectionate towards you, but not like you're a pet. Affectionate like a friend." He explained in the attempts of saving himself.

Riku stared for a few silent moments before uncrossing his arms and letting out a soft sigh. "Fine." He said. "I guess that's reason enough." The two then sat in silence for a few moments once again. "… How long do you think it'll be now before we get there? How long have we even been travelling?" He asked.

"It's been a few hours at the least. I don't know entirely, because I fell asleep too." Sora said. "Judging by the cotton and mountains outside, though, we're fairly close to getting home." He stated. "Have your owners ever planted cotton before?" He asked somewhat curiously. The silverette shook his head. "Just tons and tons of wheat. It's fun to go through it when it's all grown, though. It'd be real fun to play hide-and-seek in if the other kids actually wanted to play with me." He said.

Sora made a slight pout. "If I were a little kid living there, I would have played with you. You're interesting to be with~" He said. "Most of the kids that live there are mean. I already told you that." Riku said, sticking his tongue out. … Honestly, he couldn't actually recall if he'd told Sora about that or not, but even if he hadn't, the brunette knew that now, at least.

All of the sudden, the carriage jerked downwards rather abruptly. It wasn't a very large distance, but it was enough to frighten Riku and suddenly cling to Sora. "W-what was that? Did we just run over something?" He asked. The carriage jerked again.

Sora laughed a little. "We didn't run over anything." He said. "I know what we ran over. The owner of this land here decided to dig a little moat going across the road for some reason; probably to mark where his border was or something." He shrugged slightly. "We are close, though. The property I live on is just two plantations away." He said.

"… You live on a plantation?" Riku asked a bit slowly. "Are you a really rich slave?" He seemed confused. Sora chuckled. "I am not a slave. My family owns the plantation. I'm not old enough to become the owner just yet." He said. Riku frowned a little bit at the thought. "You don't treat your slaves all bad, do you?" He questioned. Sora responded with a shake of his head. "I don't know how ours are treated. I don't interact with them much." He said.

"Oh." The youngster responded shortly. "Well, you should try and make it to where they're all treated nicely. It isn't fun when mama comes home and she's gotten hurt in some way." He pouted slightly. Suddenly, his mood changed rather quickly. "Do you think I can get her a souvenir from this vacation?" He grinned happily. "Pleeease?" He dragged out the word in a begging, pleading tone. "I won't ask for anything else, I super-promise~" He said.

"You can take whatever you want." Sora laughed a little bit. "Since she's a girl, she'd probably enjoy having some bracelets or necklaces." He said. He paused for a moment. "Or perhaps some real nice work gloves and some lotion. After working around a bunch outside, I imagine that she'd appreciate having some lotion." He said.

"Ooh, probably." Riku responded with a nod. "Do you think I could get some too, for when I have to start working?" He asked. The silverette had still been hugging Sora from his fright of the bumpy road, however his grip was not as strong anymore. Sora reached up and petted his hair. "You won't have to work for a long while, I promise." He smiled slightly.

Riku seemed a bit confused by what Sora said. "How come?" He asked questioningly. He paused for a few moments. "Why do you say it's a vacation, but then you keep talking about it like it's home?" He asked. "I have two homes." The brunette responded with a slight shrug. "I haven't been to the second one in a long while, the one we're going to now, so it feels like a vacation." He said. "It's not entirely a vacation, but it's nice to be away from the other home, I guess." He said with a slight smile.

"Are both homes big?" Riku asked the question in a somewhat half-hearted manner. Despite having been friends with Sora for a long time, the elder was slowly starting to come off as some snobby, noble, rich person. His mother did not like that type of people, and therefore he as well had been taught to despise them. If it weren't for those people, his mother would tell him, they would be free, able to live where ever they wanted and have a fun job of some sort.

"They're both fairly large. A bit bigger than the mansion at your plantation." Sora said. "… Well, much bigger. The 'mansion' where you live is just a large shack, no different from the homes you live in as slaves." He stated. "I promise you'll enjoy where we go, though. There's heating for cold winter nights and big beds with tons of thick blankets~" He smiled. "When we get there, I want you to get some different clothes right away." He said. "These are well past needing to be ridden of." He tugged lightly at Riku's shirt; the movement, despite its gentleness, had pulled a thread out of the fabric. Riku most certainly needed new clothes.

"Get rid of?" Riku questioned with a slight pout, glancing down at the coarse clothing. "I never really had a problem with it before… my mom made it for me when I was younger." He said. He randomly made a little grin. "She told me that I'd grow into it someday. It was almost like a dress on me when I was that young." He giggled. "I guess I've grown into it now, so maybe I should get another extra big shirt to grow into also." He said.

Sora quickly shook his head. "You need a lot of clothes! Not just one shirt to wear every day and grow into over the years." He said. "I change my clothes two to three times a day." He said. The youngster had a sudden look of bewilderment upon hearing his elder's response. "Three times _every day_?" He questioned. "What do you even need to wear to change three times in a day?" He asked.

"Sleepwear, for sleeping in, normal clothes, like when I'm just in the house and no important people are around, and then a formal outfit for when there _are_ fancy people about." The brunette said. "It's most certainly not as much as other people wear every day." He snickered lightly. "Most of the time I just wear my casual clothing; what I'm wearing now. Axel becomes a bit cross with me when I try to wear my pajamas around the house." He stated.

"Who's Axel?" The boy asked, becoming a bit more interested in the conversation again. "He's my favorite butler. He gets me food and clothes and things like that." He said. Riku's confusion seemed to be near-everlasting as he once again questioned the logic of the noble. "Is he a slave?"

Sora shook his head. "He does it voluntarily; he's far from being a slave. He lives in my house and has a bedroom of his own. He also gets to eat whatever he wants and whenever he wants; I haven't ever seen him eat or drink before, but I'm sure he does at some point." The brunette made a slightly sheepish grin due to him not knowing much about his servant. "He seems to enjoy his job for the most part, though. I'd be in total disarray if he suddenly went and quit on me."

The carriage made a slight rumbling sound and shuddered for a short moment before the two were able to feel the vehicle stop. "We're here now." Sora said. "Because there is no other reason the carriage would have stopped, being so near home~" He smiled. The door opened up; neither of the pair had opened it. Sora nudged Riku away from himself to look outside. "It's not too impressive from behind, but it still looks fairly nice, I suppose." He said.

Riku hopped out of the carriage and looked over towards the house. He was instantly in awe with the sheer size of the home; he was unsure that it could really, truly be Sora's. The home—no, mansion, was positively huge. A three story abode. There were multiple chimney stacks around the edges of the black shingled roof; the home its' self had walls of white shingles. Other than a few windows, there weren't many decorations around the area. The carriage had been stopped in front of a small, stable like area, the barn being made of the iconic red-with-white-trim paint. Riku let out a somewhat excited gasp, reached out and grabbing Sora's hand quickly, tugging him outside of the carriage and gripping his hand tightly. "I get to stay here?!" He asked excitedly.

Sora laughed softly at Riku's positive reaction to the home. "Yes. You can sleep in whichever room you'd like; there's plenty to spare." He said. He began walking towards the home. It was about fifty yards from the barn, making it not be too far of a walk. There had been a small patio area in the back of the house, leading to a small back door. "We can enter through here. Perhaps you can see the front of the mansion later today." He said. "But first, new clothes and perhaps a snack." He said.

Riku bounced a little in an impatient way, walking ahead of Sora and tugging his hand like a dog that wanted more leash. "Well, walk faster so I can get that stuff and then see the outside!" He said. Once he got to the back door, he tested the handle, hoping that it would not be locked. It was not. He pushed the door open quickly and went inside with immediate interest. The door had led inside to a very nice looking hallway, one long grey-blue carpet extending from the end of the hall to the other end; it stopped at some stairs that led to somewhere that Riku was not able to see from his point of view at the time. The door they had walked into was at the very end of the hallway and right in the corner of it.

Riku went inside somewhat quickly, letting out a fairly happy little laugh and going down the hallway somewhat quickly. "This is pretty!" He said. "I've never been inside a home so huge!" He looked up at the high ceilings and grinned. "How many rooms are in here? A hundred?" He asked.

"Probably not that many." Sora snickered. "But there are a fair few. I'm glad you like it." He said. The brunette began walking down the hallway in a calmer manner than his younger friend, whom of which was making some sort of jittery walk-skip down the hallway. Riku reached the end of it and looked up towards the stairs, curious to see what was up there. There were some railings along the top of the wall when there were no more stairs to prevent anyone above from falling over, and they seemed to lead to some sort of room, for a wall was unable to be seen past the railings.

"What's up here?" Riku asked. By the time he was at the first step of the stairs, Sora was only halfway down the hall. He pouted, went back over to Sora quickly, and grabbed his hand again, pulling him towards the stairs impatiently. "I wanna see~!" He said.

Sora grasped Riku's hand and gave it a little squeeze. "Nope." He grinned. "I'm not gonna let you go. We get to go this way instead because I want you to~" He turned around and began walking back from which the way they came, easily having Riku stumble after him.

"N-not fair!" Riku huffed, trying to tug his hand out of the brunette's grip. "You're stronger than me." He complained. "Or you have the muscles of a baby." Sora stopped for a moment and prodded Riku's arm with one finger; it was rather un=muscular despite how much he ran around and climbed trees.

"Baby muscles?" Riku repeated, glancing at his arm in a somewhat disappointed manner. "Well, when I grow up, I'll be super strong!" He said. "Then _I'll _be the one to drag you around hallways." He said with determination, giving Sora a smug grin.

Sora snickered. "Sure. Whatever you say." He replied. He was no longer holding onto Riku's hand as tight anymore. "You can go where you want~" He decided randomly. "But you have to hold my hand the entire time." He said.

Riku looked almost confused for a moment before making a little sigh, deciding not to argue with his friend any more since he'd probably end up losing it. "Okaaay…" He murmured. His disappointment did not last long as he made his way back towards the stairs, climbing them as fast as he could without letting go of Sora's hand.

Riku was automatically in awe again of the room surrounding. The stairway had led up to what looked like a small greeting area, a few nice looking grey couches and loveseats with a table in the center and a few pieces of artwork and plants decorating the room. Despite Sora's specifications on holding his hand, Riku let go and went over towards the largest , basically falling down onto it once near enough. "It feels so nice~!" He said.

Sora watched with a rather amused expression. "You actually think those are comfy?" He asked. "I've never liked those couches. They feel scratchy and stiff." He said. "If you get so excited over those old things, you'll faint from shock at the beds." He said.

"I wanna see one of the beds!" Riku replied, sitting up quickly. "Fainting from comfy-ness would be awesome!" He giggled. Sora simply chuckled back. "Fainting for any reason isn't particularly good." He said. "I'll take you to see one of the bedrooms, at least. Follow me~" He cooed, going towards the corner closest to the railings of the little loft area. In that corner was a white door. Upon being opened, it led to another, however somewhat small, hallway. He walked inside.

The silverette followed after in a cheerful manner, wanting to see what the bedrooms in the mansion looked like. The hallway was surprisingly small; Riku would be able to stretch his arms out fully and the tips of his fingers would only be a few inches or so from the clean-looking wallpaper. The distance would increase just slightly when a door was; the door was thinner than the thick wall, and therefore, an inch or two of space was added.

"You can open any door you'd like." Sora said. "If it's unlocked, you can try to get in~" He said. The younger of the two quickly reached out to grab at the knob of the nearest door to open it; unfortunately for him, it was locked, not budging a bit. Riku made a slight huff and hurried over to the next door. Luckily for him, it did open. All the doors were on one side of the hallway, and there were only three; he was glad that the second one worked. He pushed the door open and peered inside.

In the room, the walls had white and pink wallpapers, decorated with prints of flowers here and there. A two-person bed sat in the middle underneath a window, perfectly centered in the somewhat small room. There was a dresser on the left side and a small table with a quill and ink well atop it, as well as a few candles, probably for writing at night time. "You sleep in a room like this?" Riku seemed positively amazed by the simple, yet elegant design of the room. "This is as big as my whole home!" He exclaimed. Sora suddenly let out a laugh. "You think _this _is where I sleep?" He asked. "My room is a fair lot bigger than this puny one is! This is just some workers room. They all sleep on the second and first floor of this home while I get the top all to myself." He said.

Riku looked over at Sora in a shocked way. "Your room is even bigger? What's in it?" He asked. "Pretty much the same things that are in this room, but a bit higher quality than this." Sora responded, glancing around the room with a somewhat uninterested expression. "Your room will probably be a little smaller than mine, but it most certainly will not be this puny." He said.

"A whole room, all to myself?" Riku asked. "I don't have to share a bed or anything?" He made a happy grin. "That's cool! Now whenever I sleep I can roll around everywhere and no one will get mad at me!" He laughed slightly. Sora seemed just a little confused. "Did you have to share a bed at home?" He asked. The silverette responded with a nod. "There's one bed in my home. Me and my mom have slept on it together since so far back, I can't remember the first time I did." He spoke in a near-proud voice, as if it was an achievement to have done that.

Sora frowned just slightly, but his frown turned to a smile not a moment later. "Well, both you and your mom will get to sleep alone tonight, so that should be a nice change for a little bit." He said. "Would you like to see my room now?" He asked curiously.

Riku quickly made a vigorous nod. "I do~!" He said. He grabbed Sora's hand and left the bedroom, going back out to the little greeting area and heading towards the opposite wall. There was another door in the same spot on the other wall. "Is it this one right here?" He asked in both a curious and an excited voice.

"It isn't." Sora replied with a random light snicker. "That's another hallway. It _does _lead to my room, though." He went to the door, but stopped. He pulled a key out of his pocket and put it into the lock of the doorknob, turning the key and then opening the door. "Typically the only people allowed up here is me, my parents, and Axel." He said. "You can come up here any time you like, though." He smiled. He walked through the door. There was a hallway similar to the opposite one; the house seemed nearly symmetrical from what Riku had seen so far. This hall wasn't exactly the same, however. Once again there were a few doors leading to bedrooms, however they were all open, unlike the opposite side. A spiral staircase going upwards was in the small room at the end.

Riku had never seen a staircase like the one at the end of the hall before. He went down the hallway curiously. Once he got to the door, he looked up the stairs in an almost confused way. "… These are stairs?" He asked somewhat curiously. "I never knew they looked like that. I've only ever seen ones that look…" He paused for a moment, uncertain of what choice of words he wanted to use. "… Stair-y." He said.

Sora chuckled softly. "That isn't a true word." He said. "I think stairs can be in any shape; I've only seen the 'stair-y' ones and these spiral ones, though." He stated. He went over to the steps and began climbing up, Riku following after him somewhat quickly. The youngster found the little somewhat-triangular shaped platforms rather fun to step up on; much better than the normal stairs, like the ones he'd gone up to get to the second floor originally.

Once they were at the top, Riku looked around almost immediately astonished once again. The room they had entered was very large; the top of the stairs were somewhat in the corner. Despite being on the third floor, there was somehow still a small fireplace just in front of them. There was no fire burning, but the room smelled nicely of smoked wood, leaving an interesting scent to the indoor area. Everything in the room was a brown color, the couches, rugs, tables, and the curtains of the many windows on one side of the room. Even the bricks of the fireplace were brown. Sora walked through the room in a nearly uninterested fashion whilst Riku followed after in a completely opposite way, peering around at the decorations with curiosity.

There was a simple brown door at the side of the room. Sora went over to it and turned the handle; all the doors had different ways of opening them, Riku realized out of the blue. Some of them had handles, the others had knobs. Perhaps the designer of the home was very indecisive over what to use. Following behind Sora once again, he looked around with his ever-so-persistent interest in the home.

There was a short hallway once again; this one was much larger than the ones just a floor below him. They were still fairly small; the bedrooms along the hallway, he imagined, most likely made up for the minute sizes. "This one here is my room." Sora went to the end of the hallway. The designer of the house also apparently seemed to really like putting the important rooms at the end of the halls. Strange, Riku thought.

Sora again had to use the key to open this door. He must have not liked people getting inside of his personal things. Inside the room, there was a similar color scheme as the room that had the spiral staircase in it. It must have been Sora's favorite color for the floor to have so much brown. Riku decided that it made fair sense, due to his friend's hair color being brown.

At first glance inside of the room, there appeared to be no bed. It turned out that it was in a little nook-like area to the left of the door, in a spot where another room probably would have been. There was a dresser, a desk, and a few paintings around the walls; they were also a brown color, along with the comfortable carpeted floor. As Sora had commented before comparing his room and the unknown servant's room, most of the furniture and contents were for the most part the same. Also as he had said, though, the furniture was fancier than the workers'. The dresser was built with a very nice dark looking wood and was skillfully carved into, swirls and floral shapes engraved into the wood. Riku couldn't get a good look at Sora's bed from when he was standing. He walked into the room and stared around curiously. "This is a really big room." He said.

"Do you like it?" The brunette asked curiously, watching his younger friend explore the fair sized room. Riku had walked over towards the corner in a near confused fashion; some big, strange, brown-colored… _thing _was sitting there, along with a second strange… thing, however it was much smaller than the first one. Riku had no clue what they were, reaching out and touching the largest object hesitantly. There were many windows along the wall and the roof was visible from the windows, however only through little gaps in the drapes shielding the sunlight from intruding through the glass. The clouds outside had apparently cleared, as a bit of sunlight was shining through onto the wooden object, shining on some smooth, white, almost stone-looking rectangular shapes. There were lots of the white rectangles all side by side, but just between and above them were occasional black rectangles, seemingly in a random order. The silverette reached out and touched it hesitantly, and was startled when a fairly loud 'pink' sound was made. "W-what is this?" He asked, hand drawing away from it.

Sora laughed at Riku's small fear. "It's a piano." He said, walking over towards Riku and pressing down on another key. The one he hit was at the opposite end of the long row of keys, and it made a deep, low sounding note. "It makes music. Surely you've at least _heard _of one before, right?" He asked. The boy gave a confused stare and slowly shook his head. "I never knew what it was before just now."

"You're so closed off to everything." Sora pouted. "I can't play the piano to save my life, but Axel can, and he plays it very, very well." He said. "It can make tons of different music that can either sound super happy or really sad. Either way, it's pretty relaxing to listen to." He smiled. "… Unless you just mash random notes, that is." He said.

"Oh." The youngster responded. "I think I remember mama mentioning that word before. What about the other thing?" He pointed towards the other object that was near the piano. It looked a bit like a box, but had strings and a stick with another string propped neatly beside it.

"A violin." Sora responded. "Do you have any clue at all what instruments are?" He snickered. "It also makes sounds, but it's harder to get a proper note out of than a piano." He said. "It's a bit more complex than just tapping some keys, in my opinion. You have to put your fingers in special places and hold the bow the right way and all sorts of nonsense." He said. He picked up the instrument by it's neck, lightly plucking the string for a short moment before setting it back down.

Riku listened with intent and interest. "That sounded cool!" He said with a cheerful grin. "Can I try, maybe?" He asked. Once receiving approval, he picked the violin up the same way that Sora had, being rather cautious and gentle with it so he would not break the instrument. He plucked at the string in a similar manner to Sora and looked nearly startled by the sound; the string he had plucked was on the opposite side of the instrument from the one that the brunette had plucked and made a much deeper sound. "… I-Is that supposed to happen?" He asked with a now somewhat hesitant voice.

Sora smiled and nodded. "Don't be afraid of it~" He said. "Doing something like that won't hurt the instrument. It's probably better if you use the bow, however. It makes a longer, prettier sound… as long as you are able to do it correctly, that is." He stated. Reaching out to take the violin back from Riku; the boy gladly did; and then taking the bow that rested against the wall, the elder put the instrument up to his chin and slowly dragged the horsehair-bow across the strings.

At the beginning, the sound produced by the violin wasn't so pretty. Sora hadn't attempted playing it in awhile. It made a slightly choppy, icky sound. Just a short moment afterwards, the sound had evened out and sounded much prettier. The note played for a few seconds before stopping.

Riku watched with a large amount of curiosity. "Why does it sound different when you use that?" He asked curiously. Sora paused in silence for a moment in thought. "… I have no clue, honestly. Perhaps it makes the vibrations different." He stated, lifting the bow in the air and staring at it with a moderate curiosity. "Oh well. Whatever it does that makes it different, it is interesting." He said. He took the violin out from underneath his chin and placed it back in the spot, along with the bow, where it had sat before.

"Do you have any more things like that?" Riku asked with a happy grin, curious to know about more instruments. This 'piano' and 'violin', still rather foreign things to him, made him eager to know more. "Are there other musical things, too?"

Sora had enjoyed Riku's enthusiasm. "Well… there are drums." He said. "I'm positive you at least know what those are. Some of them almost look like big bowls with giant pieces of animal skin or paper on them." He said. "When they're hit, they make a sound. They don't sound like a piano or a violin, or any other string instrument. They make a sound like stomping your foot on the floor." The elder explained.

Riku listened intently. Upon hearing the completion of the sentence, he stomped his foot on the floor experimentally to see what a drum sounded like. The two were standing on carpet, and therefore it did not sound like much other than a dull 'thunk'. The silverette gave Sora a confused look. "… Really?" He questioned.

Sora quickly shook his head. "I meant on a tile or wooden floor. The rug dampened the sound." He said. "I don't believe I have any drums at this house. Some of the workers might. I've never entirely liked the sound, so I never bothered having them. These two are my favorites." He motioned towards the nearby instruments. "If you wished to get a drum, though, I could show you one. I'm sure they aren't difficult to find or make~" He smiled.

The younger grinned. "Okay!" He said. Satisfied with the answer he was given, he decided to hop away from the instruments and instead went over to the window. "Do you think I can see what the front of the house looks like?" He asked as he gingerly moved one of the curtains to the side to look outdoors.

"Mmh… later." Sora stated, watching the boy for a moment. He walked over to his bed and laid down on it sideways. "I don't know about you, but that alcohol still has an effect on me." He covered his head with a nearby pillow and closed his eyes.

Riku quickly turned to look at the brunette and he pouted. "But that's no fun! I'm wide awake!" He said. He hurried over to the bed, having a bit of trouble to climb up the side. It was a fairly tall bed. He pulled the pillow off of Sora's head and huffed. "I wanna look around more." He said.

When the pillow was removed, Sora was grinning up at the boy. A moment later, he laughed slightly. "Did you truly think I was going to go to bed all of the sudden?" He asked. "'Twas a joke~" He cooed with a snicker, sitting up and batting Riku away lightly. "If you truly want to explore, why not do it yourself?" He asked. "I don't know about you, but when I was young, I liked exploring on my own. I've always lived in houses like this, and even if I'd lived in that home for months, I found it interesting to look around. Occasionally, I would find rooms that I had not known were in the house previously." He said. "I know of all the rooms in this house, unfortunately, so I suppose there is no true exploration for me anymore." He said.

Riku watched, sitting on his knees with his hands between them. "Explore on my own?" He questioned. He thought about the idea, unsure if he wanted Sora with him or not. "What if some worker of yours gets mad at me for being there?" He asked.

"If they get angry, tell me. They should all know who you are by now." Sora responded. He kept laying on the bed, however shuffled into the correct direction that people normally would rest. "I think I will at the least relax a little bit." He purposely yawned to emphasize his yearn to be lazy.

Riku's eyes narrowed slightly; his suspicions were that Sora truly did just want to sleep. "Fiiine…" He dragged out his word. He let himself off of the bed and headed to the door. Before going out of sight of the bed, he stuck his tongue out at Sora. "But don't be mad if you wake up with a bunch of fish next to you." Before the brunette could respond, he giggled and ran out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Upon the semi-full exploration of the large home, Riku had taken an hour or two at the minimum. The home was a _lot_ larger than he originally perceived. He'd become slightly peckish by the 'extensive' searching he'd done; a majority of his wandering was testing locked door handles and wandering around the rooms that he was able to get into. At one point, he'd come across some sort of library. He spent a few minutes there pulling every book halfway off the shelf and pushing it back in. A long time ago he recalled hearing a story that sometimes, if you pulled a book out of the bookcase, a new room would be revealed. He had been disappointed when there was not a single bookshelf-door in the room.

Riku had somewhat lost his way in the large home. He hadn't known that it was so large on the inside; there were many rooms simply hidden about the hallways. Rooms that led to rooms that led to even more rooms. It was slightly eerie to the boy that he hadn't encountered a single person during his exploration.

Riku was walking down the opposite hallway of the one that he had entered into when originally arriving at the gigantic building. He had walked down the hallway, going into every room he could until he made his way down to the very end; the end room he had just exited was not very interesting. A bed, a dresser, a mirror, a desk… he'd seen at least ten rooms like that just within the hour. The only thing that seemed different about the final room was that there was a door on the wall. None of the smaller rooms, he noticed, had no doors inside of them. All but that one. He could not get into the room within the bedroom, however, as it was locked. The silverette simply assumed it had been a bathroom and moved on.

The youngster was now able to see the stairs that went up to the second floor. He smiled slightly at the sight and began heading towards them. His legs ached from walking around for so long. He was nearly out of the hallway before a somewhat raspy, male voice questioned "What are you doing?", startling the young boy. Riku turned quickly to see who had spoken to him.

A rather tall man wearing a suit had apparently just been in one of the rooms that Riku passed by earlier. Riku couldn't remember if he'd opened the door that the man came out of or not; he didn't remember seeing the somewhat startling adult, so he assumed the door had been locked. "U-uh…" The silverette stammered slightly.

The man stepped over to the boy quietly. The stranger's bright red hair nearly looked both unruly and proper at the same time, hardly-natural bright green eyes accentuating his odd appearance. Along with the already odd profile, the man had two teardrop tattoos underneath both of his eyes. Upon looking at Riku closer, the man suddenly made a slight smile. "Ah. Sora speaks of you often to me."

Too startled to respond, Riku simply gaped at the man. Up close he had to have been a few feet taller than him at the very least; he had to look up to make eye contact. "I-I…" He was at a loss for words. "… Sora?" He asked, confused by the mention of him.

The man nodded. "I am his personal servant. My name is Axel." He stated. He reached out and touched Riku's forehead with the tip of his finger, giving the boy a short grin. "Got it memorized?"

"Uh… I think…" The silverette responded somewhat slowly. The attitude of said _Axel _confused him slightly; he didn't seem proper one single bit, very different of how Sora would for the most part act. Maybe it was one of those 'opposites attract' situations, Riku decided. The servant removed his hand and put it back to his side. "Are you looking for Sora right now?" He questioned.

Riku nodded in response. Although he still felt that there was more to explore in the home, he decided that it could be saved for another day. "I know how to get back to his room, though." The youngster pointed towards the stairs. "I go there, and then I go up the spinny stairs." He very briefly described the path to get to the bedroom.

The redhead watched with interest. "Really, now?" He questioned. "How about you show me the way?" He smiled. The youngster felt slightly panicked on the inside, his expression matching the feeling. "… O-okay!" He stuttered slightly. He turned and walked quickly towards the stairs, climbing up two stairs at a time despite how he struggled with his short legs to get up that way.

Axel followed at a much slower rate, taking the stairs just one step at a time unlike the younger of the two. He didn't entirely need to hurry since he already knew where Sora's room was.

Making his way to the luckily correct door, Riku opened it and pointed down the hallway. "It's… this way?" He said in a more questioning than definitive voice. Once receiving a nod that it was the correct door, he grinned happily and headed to the end of the hallway quickly. The door was closed, but he was certain that the circular staircase was behind it. He pushed the door open and was glad to see that it was. He climbed up them quickly, stopping when he was close to the ceiling of the floor that they were currently on. "And then it's this way!" He sounded much more confident in his directions now.

"Good, good." Axel said. He followed after the silverette once again, this time making sure to take the stairs one step at a time. Due to the staircase being in a spiral, the steps were in triangular shapes, the thinnest part being close to the base of the stair and the widest being furthest from the base that it was wrapped around. He had stumbled up the ridiculous build multiple times before and did not want to make a fool of himself around a child.

Once in the oddly placed greeting room, Riku hurried over to the door of Sora's bedroom in a near-running pace. He felt no need to knock on the door and instead burst right through. "I found it!" He announced happily.

Sora had most certainly been dozing at the time, and had woken to Riku's shout with a start. He stared at the silverette with a both confused and slightly displeased expression. "What was that for?" He asked. "I was having a nice daydream." He stated.

Riku looked over to Sora and grinned sheepishly. "I was showing Axel that I knew how to get here." He said. "And I did~" He nodded his head vigorously to add on to his sentence. "Axel is here?" was Sora's only question, seeming a bit more interested with him than with Riku at the time.

"I am, sir." Axel had walked into the room rather solemnly all of the sudden, confusing Riku quite a bit. His attitude had totally changed once around Sora. Axel smiled just slightly and gave a curt bow to the brunette. "Do you want anything?"

Sora thought for a minute. "Warmed milk and chocolate." He said rather randomly. He then made a shooing motion with his hand to dismiss the servant, whom of which left when told. Riku wandered over to the brunette's bed and sat down on the edge of it. "What was that for?" He asked.

"Dipping chocolate in warm milk melts it slightly melted. I like the taste of it on the occasion." Sora responded as he studied his nails. They were getting a little long, he noticed. Riku made a frown at his friend. "No, not that. I meant how you seemed kinda mean to Axel." He said. "When you did this." He mocked the shooing hand gesture that Sora had done moments before.

"Oh. I normally do that." Sora said with a slight shrug. "I'm impatient when I want food." He said. The silverette sat quietly for a few moments before sliding off the bed and deciding to sit on the floor. "I like Axel. I met him in the hallway." He said, going slightly off topic.

Sora watched the boy before laying flat on his back on the bed. The covers were still well made, only wrinkled slightly from Sora having laid on top of it. He hadn't gotten underneath the blankets at any point of time, it seemed, during the couple of hours that they had been at the home. "He introduced himself to you, I am assuming?" He questioned.

Riku nodded. "He told me what his name was and then he poked my forehead." He said. "He's kinda weird. I like that." He grinned happily. "And his hair is real cool, too. Is it real?" He asked. He received no response for a few moments. "… It is real." Sora said a bit absently. "He does everything I tell him to except for cutting that bloody shag. I've given up on trying to convince him to get a more professional hairstyle, but he won't change his hair until I change mine." He said. His brows furrowed as he spoke. "I like my hair as it is, so I'm not changing it." He said in a stubborn tone.

Riku giggled slightly. "Both his hair and your hair is real interesting. I don't want it to change." He said. "It's a lot better than most people's hair… everyone that is back at my home doesn't have hair near as interesting as yours. Does anyone else around your house have hair like that?" He asked curiously, sitting up on his knees and peering over the edge of the bed to see what Sora would respond. He was just tall enough to see right over the top of the mattress.

"I don't believe so. I know a few people with interesting hairstyles, but they don't live here. It seems that it's usually the more valuable or special people can afford to have such an odd style, instead of just leaving it down like commoners." Sora said.

Riku glanced at his own hair from the corner of his eye and felt slightly disappointed at the thought of being just a normal person. "Oh." He said shortly, sounding ever-so-slightly downhearted.

"Your hair is very unique!" Sora said quickly. "I've never seen a child with white hair. That's special enough to not need some crazy hairstyle." He told the younger boy. Riku's disappointment vanished at Sora's compliment and he grinned happily. "Oh. I haven't seen any kids with white hair, either. I guess that is cool." He giggled. Sora simply felt relieved that he saved himself from Riku being all sad and wanting to make his hair different in some way.

Axel had returned rather quickly with the snack that Sora had requested. On a small platter he had a cup full of milk, visible steam rising from the liquid's surface inside. Along with that there was a little plate with neatly stacked squares of chocolate. Each piece of chocolate was five connected blocks; on the plate, there had been five chocolate bars per layer, and about three or four layers total. The bars crossed over one another in a waffle shape, almost. "Here you go~" The redhead said as he walked over to the bed, setting the platter next to Sora gently. After doing that, he left.

Sora looked towards the food and smiled happily. "Oh, good." He sat cross-legged and pulled the tray just in front of him, picking up one of the squares of chocolate and breaking off a row. Once doing that he set down the larger piece of chocolate and then placed the five-long row of chocolate into the cup of hot milk.

Riku watched with curiosity. He climbed up onto the bed and looked into the cup of milk and was almost confused as to why Sora had wanted it. "Hot milk doesn't smell good…" He said, leaning back and away from the food. Sora looked up at the youngster with a rather confused expression. "You don't like it?" He asked. As he spoke, he was stirring the stick of chocolate in the milk. "I find it pretty tasty." He said.

"Well… the milk its' self." The youngster responded to his elder friend. "The chocolate isn't so bad. Why are you putting that in there, anyways?" He questioned, not understanding Sora's motive for wasting perfectly good candy on grody hot milk.

"It makes the milk also taste like chocolate." Sora said. He pulled the stick he had out of the milk. The part of it that had been under the white liquid was now very melt-y and nearly looked to be a liquid, its' self. Along with that, it had left a little dot of chocolate on the surface of the milk; the chocolate was warm enough to be dripping, so a few more droplets would fall down to the milk periodically. Sora raised the chocolate up to his mouth and took a bite off of the end, making a little smile as he chewed. He found it very tasty.

Riku gawked at the sight of the chocolate and quickly became jealous of Sora eating the chocolate. "I want some!" He said. He crawled over the bed and sat on the opposite side of the platter as Sora, on his knees instead of cross-legged like Sora was.

"Would you eat it if I gave it to you?" Sora questioned, suspicious that Riku would be a picky eater and would decide to not want it only after it was in his mouth. Riku nodded confidently and reached to grab his own small bar of chocolate, but was stopped by Sora.

"My bar is still fairly melted. Just eat this one." The brunette said, holding his piece of chocolate out to Riku's mouth. "Oh, okay~" Was the youngster's response. Riku leaned closer and ate the rest of the melted chocolate, getting a little bit of it on his lips when he ate it. "It's good!" He said as he chewed.

Sora broke another row off of the block and set it in the milk and watched Riku with a small smile. "Did you like it enough to want another?" He asked. The youngster finished chewing his piece of chocolate fairly quickly since it was melted and he nodded. "Uh-huh." He responded with a nod.

Sora watched Riku for a moment before smiling a bit again. "You have some on your face." He said. "Let me get it off for you." He reached out and gently grabbed Riku's chin to inspect the chocolate a bit more before suddenly leaning in and kissing Riku on the lips.

Riku was slightly startled by the kiss, blushing and closing his eyes. He neither accepted nor rejected the simple peck, as he was too embarrassed to really respond. Once Sora pulled away, the elder snickered softly. "That chocolate is persistent. It's still there." He said.

Riku opened his eyes and looked at Sora. His blush remained on his face as he suddenly made a giggle. "And now it's on your lips, too." He said. Sora attempted to look down at his own lips but to his avail had quickly failed. "I do?" He asked. "Shame that Axel didn't bring us any napkins. I suppose the only solution is to kiss and kiss until it's all gone." He said. "How… disappointing." He smiled.

Riku's blush quickly deepened after hearing Sora's suggestion. "I…" He said. "I guess so." He glanced away sheepishly. He and Sora had most certainly already kissed before, but he always got embarrassed when they did. Before today, Sora would normally kiss him when they met in the forest. Riku's excuse for embarrassment was that someone may have been looking at them at the time, even if they were in the cover of the undergrowth. He had no excuse now; … unless someone was hiding under the bed or in the closet, that is.

Sora was easily able to see how shy Riku had been about the somewhat intimate request. "If you don't want to, you don't have to." He gave Riku a quick pet on the head and kissed his cheek, thankfully not leaving any chocolate there. He sat up straight and stirred his cup of milk with the one-by-five chocolate bar. The end of it was already rather melted.

The young Riku was relieved that he needn't kiss Sora. He did admit that he liked Sora and had some puppy love for him, but the thought of kissing would always make him rather embarrassed. He simply watched Sora quietly, deciding in his mind on if he should eat any more chocolate or not. He licked his lips briefly to see if he could taste any more chocolate on them; he could not.

Once all of the chocolate was eaten and the milk was drank, Riku had been lying flat across Sora's bed with his eyes closed. "That made me feel sleepy…" He mumbled. It was more of a groggy, good feeling sleepy than just a persistent and annoying tiredness. The couple had been in the room together for about forty-five minutes now. Exploring the house had worn out the child, as well as the travelling they had done that day, despite how he had slept for well over half way of the journey there.

"If you are tired, you can nap in here with me, if you'd like." Sora offered. He moved the platter with its' empty cup and plate onto the small bedside table and pulled the blanket up and over so that Riku could crawl underneath it.

The silverette was glad that he wouldn't have to go to another room to nap. He got underneath the blankets and quickly tugged them over himself. Once under the layers of warmth, he curled into a fetal position, resting his head on just the corner of one of Sora's pillows. He quickly made himself at home and was almost immediately at content with his position, as he comfortably stayed there to go to sleep.

Sora watched with a smile. Despite how he was still wearing the same clothes as he had been wearing that day—he typically changed into other clothes for sleeping-, he also got himself under the covers and he laid next to Riku. It was somewhat late; about the time that the sun would be setting. No sun shone through the windows, however, as the clouds had returned once again and blocked out the ever-expansive sky. The two fell asleep roughly at the same time, both warm and comfortable next to one another.

Riku was woken up by a light nudge. "Riku, it is time to wake up now." Surprisingly, it was morning. Sora and Riku had slept for quite a while. The youngster woke to the sight of the servant, Axel. He was just slightly confused as he looked around for a moment; Sora was not next to him anymore. "Where did Sora go?" He questioned.

"Sora had work to finish." Axel said. "He missed out on a lot of working yesterday by sleeping in the carriage instead of taking the documents along with him." He said. Riku seemed slightly confused, as he didn't understand what that kind of work was; the only work he knew of was physical labor. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Oh. Okay." He responded to the redhead in more of a mumbly voice. "For how long?"

"For a while. He's fairly behind on it. He told me to wake you up once he was gone." Axel said. "Would you like something to eat or drink before I also have to go?" He questioned. Riku randomly made a frown and yawned just slightly. "Where are you going?" He didn't want to be left alone all day and wasn't keen on being by himself.

Axel made a soft sigh. "I have to monitor the stablemen with a new horse. They have to handle a rather wild stallion. Whoever sold it to us obviously didn't work hard at making him the least bit calm, and now we have to deal with it." He said.

Riku was almost instantly curious. "I wanna go!" He said. "Can I?" He grinned happily. Despite how he lived on a plantation, he hadn't seen a horse close up. His request gave Axel a hesitant expression, the elder deciding quickly on if he should allow Riku to go with him. "… You may." The redhead eventually said. "But you cannot tell Sora about it. Promise?" He questioned.

Riku nodded quickly. "I promise!" He said. He climbed out of bed quickly and hopped over to the door excitedly. "Right now?" He asked. Axel followed after him not as excitedly, going to the door and opening it. The youngster went through the greeting room and down the stairs quickly.

"Careful, now." Axel warned the younger one, quickening his pace to keep up with the silverette. "I don't want you injuring yourself any while we are out. As far as Sora knows, you're still in his room." He informed. Riku was already down the hallway and was waiting impatiently for Axel; his warning had gone through one ear and out the other. "Hurry up!" He insisted with a grin. Once Axel had gotten close to him again, he went out the door and scuttled over towards the other stairs, going down them quickly. "We go out that one door?" He called to Axel, pointing down the left hallway.

Once Axel had gotten to just the top of the stairs and saw Riku's pointing, he simply didn't respond. Not until he got down to the bottom of the stairs and had caught up with Riku. "Calm down." He said. "The horse isn't going anywhere."

Riku pouted and began to go down the hallway. "This way?" He asked. "Is it this way?" He watched Axel for a moment and waited for a response. "It is. Go to the last door and wait for me." The servant said. Once receiving approval that it was the correct hall, Riku walked down it. He tried walking at a slower pace so that the redhead wouldn't become annoyed with him running around so much. He still got to the end of the hall fairly quickly and once again had to wait for Axel to catch up.

"Go ahead and go outside. Head towards the barn, but don't get too near, in case the horse is outside." Axel said once he was a few feet away from Riku. The young silverette giggled excitedly and opened the door, going outside and halfway jogging towards the barn. There was some amount of distance between the barn and the mansion, but the width of area left Riku undaunted. He stopped about fifty feet from the barn to see a tall, light brown horse being held back by five men. Riku stood and watched curiously.

The horse snorted and pawed at the ground in an agitated manner. Three separate ropes were tied around its' neck, as well as one of them just above his hind knee. They did restrain the stallion somewhat, but most certainly did not disable him. Rather abruptly the horse had jerked the ropes out of the men's hands, bucking and screeching wildly. He kicked out his back legs in the attempt to get that one rope off, spinning and jumping around angrily. Before Riku realized it, the horse was very close to him; _too _close. Before the youngster could make any sort of response, Riku had become within range of the horse. He was abruptly kicked right in the middle of his chest, knocking the air out of him easily and pushing him to the ground. The horse paid no mind to Riku afterwards and galloped away in a panic.

When Riku was thrown to the ground, he also hit his head. He made a startled, breathless gasp for air. He felt a terrible, aching pain in both his chest and head. The pain ebbed away as his vision darkened and he passed out.

Still with a terrible, throbbing pain in his head, Riku woke up in a slightly startled manner alone in a bedroom. He was not in Sora's bedroom, and had to have been in a different one. His head and chest hurt enough for tears to well up in his eyes, however not enough to fully begin crying. He didn't feel that he could sit up without hurting himself, so he didn't. He couldn't fully comprehend what had occurred; he could hear a voice outside of his door.

"Why weren't you with him?!" Sora's voice questioned angrily. His voice was stifled by the wall and door separating him from the brunette. "You idiot! You're absolutely useless!" Sora had shouted. "He could have been killed because of you! Have someone find that horse and shoot it at once!"

Riku frowned and closed his eyes, the action causing the tears in his eyes to slip down the sides of his face. "N-no…" He mumbled quietly, shaking his head just slightly. He attempted to get up, however struggled when doing so.

The door of the room he was in opened just a moment later to the sight of a fuming Sora. No one else was near him at the time. The brunette walked over to the side of Riku's bed with a scowl. The sight of his friend startled Riku just slightly; he closed his eyes with a frown, disliking Sora's angry mood. He hadn't ever seen him mad before until then.

Sora's expression softened at the realization that Riku was awake. "Oh. I didn't realize you had woken up." He said with a considerably quieter voice than the volume he had previously been using towards the person Riku presumed to be Axel. "You needn't worry about the horse that injured you anymore." He said. "You will be able to safely visit the barn in a few hours or so at the least. I ordered that the horse be killed." He said.

"D-don't ki-kill it!" The young silverette said all of the sudden, looking over at the elder with a pleading expression. "The st-stable workers, t-they—" He was suddenly having quite a bit of trouble breathing and speaking so hurriedly. He was worried that the horse would be killed rather soon; something that he did not want happening.

"Calm down." Sora said. "The workers in the stable know what they are doing. Since the horse kicked you, it was obviously already a violent animal. It would have been killed anyways." He said. "Besides, we can use the meat. We'll have a nice meal in a day or two because of it."

Riku began crying more. "N-no!" He cried. "T-they were scaring the horse!" He insisted. "It doesn't deserve to die!" The elder brunette stared in confusion at the younger one. "… What do you mean?" He questioned. He had a slight frown on his face, a bit displeased that the boy wanted the unruly equine to live.

"T-those men that were handling the horse…" Riku said. He had to let out a shuddering breath; it was still fairly difficult for him to breath in and out. There must have been a large bruse on his chest by the time he had woken up. "They had a bunch of ropes on him and were being mean to him." He said. Now with his panicked breathing and somewhat-continuous speaking, he was making himself become lightheaded. "T-they—"

His speech was abruptly cut off by the sounds of loud thunking and a whinny. There was a small crash sound and a gunshot. "Who the hell is shooting a gun in the house!?" Sora turned and shouted once again in an angry fashion towards the door. He began walking over to it. "Nevermind this conversation," He said to Riku. "We can talk about it later." He left the room.

Riku quickly scrambled to get out of the bed. It pained him a lot to get off of the bed, but he most certainly had not wanted the horse to be injured in any way. He stumbled at first as he began to quickly move towards the door. "W-wait!" He said. He almost fell a few times just trying to leave the room. Once he got out, Sora was already gone. He was in the hallway that led to the spiral stairs and Sora's room. Riku walked down the hall to the door that lead out to the main area. He looked around in a panicked manner, desperate to find the source of the sounds quickly. He was fairly sure that because of the mention of killing the horse, and the sound of guns shooting inside and all the other scary sounds, that the horse must have gotten inside somehow.

Riku clambered down the stairs as quick as he could manage without collapsing and falling down them. He saw a strange, burly and frightening looking man with a gun walking down the hallway somewhat quickly, along with a dog and Axel. The same brown horse was at the end of the hallway and had kicked at the wall, tearing the wallpaper as it did so. The equine still had all of the ropes around it's' neck and the one around his back leg. It neighed and paced around the end of the hallway fearfully, cornered in the spot as the ugly human closed in on it.

The dog that had been with the man ran over to the horse and snarled viciously. Its snarl was quickly silenced as the horse stomped his hooves near the dog, causing the canine to yelp and scamper away a few feet. Once close enough, the man loaded the gun quickly and pointed it right at the horse.

"Don't you dare shoot it inside." Axel growled, whom of which was still nearby the man. "Blood is a terrible thing to get stuck in carpets. If you damage or dirty it, you will be fully responsible for it." He said, eyes narrowed at the man.

The man glared at Axel. "Fine." He stated. "But if that horse tries biting or kicking, I am shooting it." He said. With his gun still aimed at the horse, he began to approach it with somewhat caution. Riku abruptly began running, desperate to get to the horse before the man. He passed by Axel, who had suddenly gotten a slightly startled expression by the youngster showing around so suddenly. "Don't go near that horse!" He said.

Riku ignored Axel's command. Once he got past the man and the dog, he stopped between them and the horse. He was panting softly and had become incredibly dizzy and exhausted from the over-exertion of himself. "St-stop!" He said with the strongest voice he could manage. Tears were sliding down his cheeks. "He doesn't deserve to d-die!" He wailed.

The man turned his gun away just slightly so that it was not pointing at the young boy. He looked over at Axel to see if he'd have some sort of approval to shoot the horse anyways. Sora had suddenly shown up behind Axel. He was frowning. It was rather unclear who he was frowning to; the horse, to Riku, or to the man and his dog. There was a silence for a few moments before Sora said, "Leave." To the man.

The burly man scowled and fully lowered his gun. "Fine." He growled. He grudgingly began to walk quickly past the two, his now cowardly dog following behind him with his tail between his legs. The horse was no longer as frightened of the man and simply stood at the end of the hall silently, ears slightly lowered and head down. His tail flicked and his foot stomped just lightly on the floor.

"T-this horse…" Riku suddenly realized how exhausted he was once his adrenaline started calming down. "P-please, don't k-kill it." He whimpered. He suddenly collapsed to the floor, dizziness overcoming him fairly quickly.

Sora went over to Riku in a now worriedly way. "Why are you up?" He questioned. "You should have stayed in bed! You're hurt!" He said. His mood had completely changed from angry and agitated to concerned and worried for Riku.

Riku was now on the verge of passing out once again. He simply shook his head just a bit. Now he wasn't totally aware of what was going on and couldn't control himself. "… D-don't…" He said shortly before he simply went unconscious.

Sora watched Riku on the verge of fright. He looked over towards Axel quickly, losing his complexity at an instant. "Wh-what happened?" He questioned frightfully. The servant walked over to him and crouched down. "Don't worry, all he did was faint. If you'd like, I will take him back to his room and then take the horse outside." He said. "Do you still want it to be shot?" He questioned.

Sora hesitated in response for a moment, unsure of what to do. "… Let it live." He said finally, still seeming rather hesitant on his decision. "If Riku wanted the stallion to live, it may." His voice had lowered to more of a mumble than it was full-on speech. "I can take him to his room. You take the horse." He motioned to the four legged giant that was still standing against the wall.

"Yes, sir." Axel responded with a slight nod. Sora picked Riku up and carried him bridal-style, turning and going back to the large staircase. He didn't watch to see how Axel would handle the horse and was much more focused on Riku at the time.

As Sora managed to get back into Riku's new room (of which hadn't been clarified to Riku that it belonged to him now), the young boy was beginning to wake up. "… Wh-what did I do…?" He questioned, unsure as to why he wasn't in the same hallway with the horse anymore.

Sora went to Riku's bed and laid him down on top of it. "You passed out." He said. "What do you remember doing?" He asked. The silverette looked around in an almost confused fashion for a moment before letting out a sigh. It felt that he had been holding his breath, nearly. "I-I…" He stuttered. He was in thought for just a few moments. "I told you to not kill the horse…" He said. He looked away slightly and was unsure if he'd actually told them to not kill it. "In the hallway." He described.

"You were only out for a minute at the most." Sora said. He seemed rather relieved that Riku was awake. "I'm glad that you've come to so quickly." He said. He reached out and touched Riku's forehead to see if his temperature was high for no particular reason. "The horse won't be killed."

Riku felt relieved almost immediately. He made a slight smile. "R-really?" He asked. "Can I go see him?" He tried to sit up, but was quickly stopped by Sora gently pushing down on his shoulder to keep him lying on the bed. "Not right now." The brunette said. "You need to rest. You got out of bed when you weren't supposed to and that put some strain on your body." He said.

Riku felt disappointed that he could not go and see the stallion. "… Okay." He mumbled now with a saddened and quiet voice. Sora felt slightly guilty, but brushed off the feeling. "You can see him later. You have to rest because you're hurt." He said. "Would you like some medicine? I can get Axel to bring you some." He said.

Riku didn't know what medicine was, however made a slow nod. "O-okay." He said again. He closed his eyes. Now that he wasn't busy running around after a horse, he had the realization that his head ached. Badly. He made a soft moan of pain and turned his body to face away from Sora. "Wh—" He couldn't finish his sentence for a moment and had to pause to breath inwards. "Why does it hurt so much?" He asked.

"Is it just your chest that hurts?" Sora asked. The silverette shook his head, reaching up and touching the back of his skull. "T-this hurts too." He said. His elder friend watched for a moment before frowning a little. "When the horse kicked you, you got a bad bruise on your chest. Don't take your shirt off and look at it; it might frighten you. Okay?" He questioned.

Riku nodded just slightly. He wasn't keen on seeing anything disgusting or scary looking and had decided he'd seen enough of that for the day. "Can medicine make it feel better?" He asked in a mumble.

Sora nodded. "It will. It might not help the bruise its' self, but you won't be able to feel as much pain. It can help the pain in your head, too." He said. "I can try to go find some, if you want. I don't really know where it is but I'm sure it isn't too hard to find." He said with a slight grin. He was trying to lighten the mood by smiling; he hoped that Riku would also smile.

Riku didn't even see Sora's smile. He just nodded once more. "If I fall asleep, can you tell someone to take the ropes off the horse?" He asked. "He didn't like them." He said. "And I think that's why he was kicking. One was on his leg."

Sora listened and made a slight frown. "They tied a rope around his leg?" He questioned. He suddenly seemed a little annoyed, but not at Riku. "What idiots, those workers. I'll find whoever did that and tell him that he can say goodbye to his job. Sound good?" He asked to Riku. The youngster then made a slight smile, glad that whoever was at fault for the whole thing would not go unpunished. "Yeah." He responded.

Sora stood up straight. "I'll go fetch that medicine for you now~" He said, seeming pretty happy now that Riku wouldn't have to worry about the horse. He turned and began heading towards the door. Once in the doorway, he stopped for a moment. "Oh, by the way, this room is yours now~" He said. "Later today or tomorrow we can talk about if or how you want to decorate it." He smiled. Riku didn't respond, but made a happy little smile. He'd always wondered what it would be like to have his own bed, and now he did.


	4. Chapter 4

Uhuhuhu.

* * *

Riku had taken a bit of time to recover from the nasty kick he'd received from the horse. He wasn't angry at all with the creature for injuring him, however. It had been a few days since he'd gotten out of his room, and he was starting to become slightly stir-crazy. There was a bad hoof-shaped bruise going around most of his rib area and he was pretty sure there was also a bruise on the back of his head, but it did not matter to him anymore. He was sitting up in bed and was bouncing on it just a bit out of boredom.

Sora walked into the room after a few minutes had passed. He smiled over at Riku. "I see you're already awake~" He said. He walked over to Riku's bed and stood at the side of it. "How about you get dressed and we go outside so you can see that horse?"

Riku seemed a little surprised that Sora would let him go see the horse. He grinned happily. "Really?" He hopped off of the bed and went over to the door. "I wanna go now!" He insisted. He was no longer wearing the clothes that he had worn before he was injured; he was wearing a loose, white nightshirt that was much too big for him. Along with that, he wore some light blue pants made of similar fabric to the shirt. It was all rather comfortable to wear and Riku didn't want to change into other clothes.

Sora watched, glad that Riku was so excited to leave. He made a slight sigh, however. "You won't get changed at all? Not even into some other pants?" He questioned. Riku quickly shook his head. "Now!" He said again. He went over to Sora and grasped his hand tightly, going back over to the door and moving into the hallway. "It's not out in public, so it doesn't matter, right?" He grinned up at the brunette.

Sora had to think for a few moments before letting out a small sigh of defeat. "… I suppose." He said. "You've got to get into the habit of changing your clothes, however. Especially if there are guests in the house." He said. "I will! I just wanna see the horse now!" The silverette responded. Not wearing any shoes, he walked out of the hallway and headed towards the stairs. He climbed down them quickly, still holding Sora's hand and having to tug on it occasionally to get Sora to keep up his pace. "Wouldn't it be cool if I learned how to ride horses, and then I went home riding on one? I bet mama would be so impressed!" He giggled. "I only have a little bit more time to learn to ride one, right?" He was fairly quickly getting to the back door of the house, wanting very much to go outside. "It shouldn't be too hard!"

Sora snickered a little bit. "Well, I wouldn't mind you staying a few extra days." He said. "You can properly learn how to ride a horse instead of just jumping on his back and hoping you don't fall off. Sound good?" He suggested. The youngster pushed open the back door and went outside, pulling Sora with him and grinning happily. "It does!" He said cheerfully. "And I still need to get mama a gift, too. Can we go into a town to find her one? I've never been in a town!"

Riku seemed rather excitable today, Sora noted. "Of course." He smiled. "Maybe once you've learned to ride a horse. I don't think you'll be able to ride the brown one just yet, but you will be able to one day. For right now, he may just be a bit too wild." He said.

The silverette was undeterred by Sora's words. "I'll be best friends with that horse!" He said. Once he made it to the barn, he went inside quickly. There were large doors for the enterance of the barn, and inside of it there were two carriages simply sitting in the middle of the large pathway. One of the carriages was the one that Sora and Riku had ridden in, the second carriage being a much smaller, one horse carriage. Stalls lined along each of the walls, a few horses poking their heads out of the top part of the door and staring at Sora and Riku curiously.

"Where is my horse?" Riku asked, looking around for the brown one that had kicked him. He went over to the stall doors and tried looking inside of them, however was too short. He pointed up to the door and looked at Sora. "Who's in there?" He asked.

Sora snickered a little. "Just a horse." He said. "I'll tell you if I see yours." He said. The silverette tried jumping to see inside of the stall. He was only able to catch a glimpse of grey fur. That was all he needed to see, as he knew for sure that 'his horse' did not have grey fur. He walked over to the next stall. "What about this one?"

The same process repeated over and over for quite a bit. They had finished with the one row that they began with, and had gone to the other side of the barn to see which horses were on that side. Luckily for them, the horse was in the second stall that they looked in on the other row.

Riku was happy to have found the horse. "Can I see?" He asked happily to Sora. The brunette smiled slightly and lifted Riku up to see the horse. "There~" He said. Riku looked over to the horse in the stall happily. "Hi!" He greeted the animal cheerfully.

The horse had been quietly munching on some oats that hung in a bucket against the wall. The horse lifted his head and looked over to Sora and Riku momentarily before turning and continuing to eat. Riku didn't seem to care that the horse had basically ignored them and instead had giggled happily. "The horse is a boy, right?" He questioned. "I want to name him!" He said.

Sora smiled a little. "I don't believe he has a name. We got him only just recently." He said. "What would you like to name him?" He questioned. "I want to name him George." Riku responded quickly and confidently. The elder brunette was ever so slightly confused at the somewhat uncreative name, but had brushed the thought away. "Nice choice." He said with a little smile to Riku. "Can I set you down now? You're kinda heavy." He said.

Riku pouted a little bit. "Okay." He said. Once Sora set him down, he stood on the tips of his toes and tried to peer into the stall. "Is there anything to stand on?" He asked, looking around for a moment.

Sora looked around for a moment as well before walking over to a somewhat odd looking box object. "When you get on a horse, you're supposed to use this box here." He said, carrying it over to Riku and setting it in front of the stall door. "Since horses are too tall for most people, we gotta have a little boost. I don't normally use it because it's too much effort to go get it." He made a little sheepish grin.

Riku got onto the box and tried looking into the stall again. With the added height of the box and once again standing on his toes, he was able to see George just fine. "Ooh, it works perfectly!" He said cheerfully. "It's like a step stool, almost~!" He reached into the stall as if to try and pet the brown horse, but his arm was much too short. "I'm excited to pet him." He grinned happily.

Sora had to think for a moment, watching both the horse and Riku. "How about you go in and pet him jut for a little bit?" He questioned. "Since no one else is around and he seems fairly calm, I think it's safe to do so." He said.

Riku looked over to his friend in an astonished way. "Really?!" He asked happily. "Thank you!" He grinned. He jumped down from the box and pulled it out of the way of the door. "Open the door, please~?" He asked.

Sora smiled and moved closer to the door. All there was, was a simple latch to hold it shut. He moved the small bar to open the door and slid it open just enough for Riku to fit inside. "I can't open it all the way just in case he tries getting out." He said. "But you can go in and pet him~" He said.

Riku went into the stall happily. "Hello, George~" He said. He walked over to the horse, however moved along the wall when doing so. Some gut instinct of his told him to not just approach the horse from behind. The equine stopped eating his oats once again to look at Riku, seeming a little confused as to why there was a tiny human in his stall.

Riku reached up and gently touched George's muzzle. He smiled and giggled at the feeling; he hadn't ever touched a horse before. "You aren't mean at all." He said. He then ran his hand down the horse's face, stopping at the circular cheek bone. "You have nice fur." He commented despite knowing that the horse would not understand him.

George simply disregarded Riku and turned his head away. He was nearly out of oats by now but went on to keep eating them. When his head was turned away, Riku ran his hand down the equine's neck. The strong muscles of the animal interested him. The silverette stroked the horse's neck a few times before moving down and touching his shoulders curiously. They also felt very strong and interesting.

Riku had decided to not touch George's legs with the slight worry that the horse would become cross with him. The youngster ran his hands over the horse's ribs, just able to feel them underneath the layers of muscle and fat. The horse was apparently a nicely fed one even though he'd only been at the barn for a few days at most.

Riku didn't go near the horse's flank and instead went back up towards his neck. He lightly patted his neck and eventually had reached up to touch the mane curiously. To Riku, the mane felt almost just like normal hair. He smiled a little bit and ran his fingers through the slightly tangled locks and he petted the horse with his other hand.

Sora was a bit surprised to see how friendly the horse had become after its' solitude in the stall. Well, either that, or the horse was simply ignoring Riku. Either way, the brunette was glad that the beast didn't react negatively to the young Riku.

A few more minutes of the stroking and caressing went on before Sora decided to step into the stall. "I believe it should be about time to leave him alone now." He said, holding his hand out for Riku to take. The silverette looked towards Sora with a little pout. "Do I have to?" He asked disappointedly.

"Well… you don't _have_ to, but don't you think it'd be nice to let him be while he eats?" Sora asked. "You can meet some of the other horses for now. Maybe the younger ones will want to play with you a bit." He said. Riku's mood seemed to change at the mention of playing and he grinned happily. "Really?"

Sora nodded. "I know we have at least one filly. She's probably ten months old or so now." He said. He began to move towards the door of the stall. "You want to see?" He asked. The silverette nodded and followed after him. "Bye, George!" He waved at the brown equine for a short moment before heading out the stall door. "Are baby horses cute?" He asked curiously. "I saw a baby cat once. It was adorable." He said.

"She's still fairly young, but even young horses are still pretty big." Sora said. "She's almost as tall as I am, if I recall correctly." Holding Riku's hand, he walked down the aisle towards the stalls that were closer to the middle. About three doors down, he stopped and peered inside. He smiled and made a light clicking sound with his tongue. Riku looked up at Sora in a confused manner, unsure of what the clicking meant.

There was a happy little whinny and a small head poked just out of the bars of the stall door; the top part of the door was closed in this stall. The nose and mouth were a soft pink color, the fur around, a nice, clean white. "Move your nose." Sora snickered lightly and gently pushed the foal's head away. He opened the door to the stall.

All of the sudden, the filly had pushed her way out of the stall. She hopped onto the floor just next to Sora and Riku and snorted softly, assuming a rather playful stance and looking at the two curiously. Even though it was just a foal, it was already taller than Riku.

Riku automatically giggled and reached out to pet the filly, whom of which dodged away and whinnied softly. The filly saw it as a game; as did Riku. Riku stepped closer and laughed a little bit. "Let me pet you~!" He said. He reached out and managed to touch the horse just for a short moment.

The filly snorted and pranced away from Riku, going towards one of the carriages and hiding behind it. The foal peered out from behind the carriage at Riku and snorted again, staring at the similarly-young being. The foal looked rather odd, Riku realized, when he actually got to see. In the places where her fur was thin, like around her eyes, nose, and near her hooves, light pink skin was shown. Along with that, her eyes were red. "How come her eyes are like that?" Riku asked, looking towards Sora curiously.

"She's an albino, I believe." Sora said, stepping closer to the two. "She was born pure white. It's not very typical of any species to be like that." He said, reaching out and lightly pulling on a strand of Riku's silver hair. "Odd that you don't have red eyes like she does~" He said.

Riku studied the foal curiously, and then looked at his hair. "I am albino?" He asked curiously. "Interesting~" He smiled. He quickly disregarded the new-found fact because he was distracted with the filly. He snuck closer to the foal despite being in plain view of her, giggling a little and peering around the corner of the carriage. "Found you~" He said.

The filly jumped away from Riku and bounded over to the opposite side of the barn. Riku went between the carriages and followed after with a giggle. "She's so happy and playful!" He said. "What's her name?" He asked. He tried to approach the little horse but could not get very close, as the female hopped away and whinnied happily.

Sora followed after Riku and the foal to make sure neither got out of his sight. "She has a very unfitting name." The brunette said with a little snicker. "Her name is Shadow." He said. Riku laughed at the name. "Really? But she's pure white!" He said. He went over to the foal once again and reached out to touch her. Finally, for once, the snowy filly complied and let Riku touch her.

Shadow's fur and mane felt very soft for Riku. "She's so pretty~" He commented. He couldn't help but wrap his arms around the foal's neck and give her a hug, giggling a little bit when the foal nibbled at his hair once he pulled away. "I like her, too." He said.

"When she grows up, she'll probably pull one of the carriages with another white horse." Sora said, watching the two. "It's like my two Friesians. Usually when people have horses for carriage pulling, all of the horses look the same." He said.

"Are you sure you'd be able to find another horse like her?" Riku asked curiously. "You said it was uncommon." He said as he continue petting the young horse. The response he received from Sora was a nod of the head. "It is uncommon, but it isn't too difficult to find a horse like her." He said. "These kinds of horses are typically unwanted. None of the albinos that I've ever had were bad at pulling or working, though, so I haven't got a clue as to why they aren't liked." He said.

Riku gave Shadow another hug. "I like her! She's so happy~" He said. He randomly gave the foal a little kiss on her cheek. "I'm getting a little hungry, though." He said out of the blue. "Do you think we can go find something to eat?" He asked curiously.

"Sure." Sora said. "Just bring her back over here and into her stall." He said. Riku made just a slight pout at the thought of having to leave Shadow. "You gotta go back to your stall now~" He said. He began walking over towards the stall and looked back to see if the filly was follong, whom of which was. He smiled a little and went inside the stall. He reached into another bucket that was hanging on the wall like the one in George's pen, taking out a handful of oats and holding them out.

At the sight of food, Shadow went into the stall almost immediately. She began munching on them out of Riku's palm happily, snorting softly as she ate and wriggling around a little bit for no reason. Once all of the oats were gone, Riku petted the little female's head, rubbing his hand past her ears and her short mane. "I'll play with you later, okay?" He grinned.

The filly simply snorted a little again and sniffed around, looking for more things to snack on. She wandered around Riku curiously and, once finding that he had no more food to offer, decided to scour the floor for oats that may have fallen down.

Riku watched for a moment before going out of the stall. "Bye bye~" He said. He waved at Shadow like he'd waved at George. Once he fully exited the stall, Sora shut the door. Riku began heading towards the entrance of the barn and he grinned a little. "What do we get to eat?" He asked curiously.

Sora thought for a moment as to what they would eat. "Perhaps some bacon and toast for now?" He asked curiously. "We'll have to wait a bit for the bacon, but we can have the toast whenever you want. It is still fairly early in the morning." He said.

The two walked outside of the barn and began heading back towards the house. Riku didn't like the idea of having to eat outside and suddenly had a rather brill idea. "What if we ate outside?" He suggested with a smile. "We never really truly got to picnic that one day because it rained. Today is perfect, though!" He said, pointing up at the sky. There were just a few clouds up in the air and the sun had just risen an hour or two ago, making the temperature nice and cool, perfect for eating outdoors.

"Ooh, nice idea." Sora responded with a smile. "How about you stay out here and I will go get the food?" He asked. "I can also bring a little blanket for us to sit on, so we don't have to sit on the grass." He said. He began to walk towards the house. "Just stay there~" He said. 

* * *

"You have a bit of jelly on your lips." Sora said. The pair were sitting outside on a blanket and had been eating some biscuits after their meal. The brunette leaned close to inspect Riku's face and he made a slight smile. "May I clean it off like I cleaned that chocolate off?" He questioned to the youngster.

Riku blushed softly at Sora's words. "You can." He said simply. He was sure that Sora meant to kiss him, and sure enough, he did. The brunette had moved close to the boy and kissed him on the lips for a few seconds. Sora pulled away from the kiss for a moment to see if there was any more jelly on Riku's lips. He kissed his lips again after a moment, slowly moving in front of Riku and between his legs rather than at his side.

Riku's blush became deeper at the position they were in. Sora had never kissed him for so long before and it was starting to become embarrassing for him. Before he knew it, his back was against the ground and Sora was on top of him. He had no clue what to do, so he simply laid there.

Sora smiled at the seeming willingness of Riku to be kissed. He closed his eyes and kissed him more, moving one of his hands down and sliding it up Riku's loose shirt. First he touched his stomach, moving upwards to the boy's chest and lightly running his thumb across one of the youngster's nipples. As he did that, Sora had pressed his tongue into Riku's mouth.

Abruptly and painfully, Riku had suddenly bitten down on Sora's tongue, causing the brunette to jerk back at once. "What the hell was that for?!" Sora asked angrily, bringing his hand up to his mouth. Riku had bitten him pretty harshly on accident. A bit of blood dribbled out of the corner of Sora's mouth. "Y-you stuck your t-tongue…" Riku whimpered a little and hadn't entirely realized the pain he'd suddenly caused Sora. He could taste a bit of his blood in his mouth.

Just as abruptly, Sora slapped Riku across the face. "Don't you ever do that again." He growled. His eyes were watered and a bit more blood had dripped down his chin as he spoke; he looked incredibly angry. He turned and walked away from him quickly, going back inside the house and slamming the door.

Riku had been knocked back slightly from the slap. He trembled and brought his hand up to his cheek gingerly; the skin was already reddened from the impact and stung bitterly. The little scene had happened so quickly that it took him a moment to register what had happened. Both the pain of being slapped and Sora's anger made him begin to cry, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging them tightly.

A few minutes passed of the boy being alone outside before someone had walked up and touched his shoulder. Riku had still been crying as he looked up to see who had been near him. "W-what?" He questioned. The person that had interrupted Riku was Axel, who had gotten down onto one knee in a kneel. "Sora was very displeased when I saw him. Is everything alright?" He questioned.

Desperate for some sort of comfort, Riku quickly got up and hugged Axel, crying into the sleeve of his shirt. "H-he was k-kissing me and I-I bit h-him." He explained, beginning to cry more. "S-so he hi-hit me and l-left." He cried.

Axel frowned at Riku's explanation. "It's alright." He said, stroking Riku's hair softly. "That is how Sora typically is. I suppose he was happy for a short while because you had shown around, but he isn't so pleased anymore." He said. "It's not you that's the problem. He simply gets angry at things." He said.

Riku trembled and moved closer to the adult. "I-I didn't know h-he'd kiss me l-like that…" He said. He coughed lightly as he suddenly felt himself be lifted from the ground; Axel was carrying him now. "Don't worry about that little mishap." He said. "I'll take you to your room and you can rest there for a little. Alright? I can also get you some medication if he hit you hard enough to hurt real badly." He said.

Riku shook his head slightly and closed his eyes. "I-I'm okay." He said softly. "I-I think I'm just going to lay down for a little while…" He mumbled. "Alright." The redhead responded, making his way to Riku's room. The two were quiet after that.

Once left in his bedroom, Riku laid on his bed quietly for a few minutes. Once he was sure that Axel wouldn't be returning, he climbed out of bed and went over to the door. He felt hesitant to go, but decided to anyways. He pushed his door open quietly and went to the spiral stairs, climbing up and sniffing occasionally. His intent was to go and apologize to Sora.

Once Riku got close to the door, he hesitated. He stood there in silence before pushing the door open and peering inside. He assumed that Sora was in his bed when he didn't see him. He closed the door quietly and went over to the bed, crawling on top of it hesitantly. Sora had been laying on the bed and was already facing away from the boy.

"… C-can I sleep with you?" Riku asked timidly to the brunette. He moved a little closer. "Go away." Sora responded shortly in aggravation. "You've done enough to annoy me today." He said. The silverette trembled a little and looked away for a moment. "B-but I only did that one thing…" He said.

"That 'one thing' was enough to piss me off." Sora said. He sat up and glared at the youngster and shooed him away. "Now get off my bed and go." He growled. For no particular reason, Riku had suddenly gotten a bit braver with his words. He frowned and let out a slight huff. "I don't have to go." He said. "You aren't my father, so I don't need to listen to you. You and I are only friends." He said defiantly.

Sora was almost immediately more agitated by Riku's words. He sat up quickly and glowered at Riku menacingly. "Of course I'm not your father." He slurred. He suddenly grabbed Riku by his wrist and pulled him closer. Once he was close enough, he hit him a second time, causing Riku to make both a pained and scared wail. "All you are is a slave." His voice had raised. "A slave does not command his master!" He suddenly shouted.

Riku raised his hand to his cheek to try and get the pain to go away. He began crying again. "I-I'm not a slave!" He wept. "Yes, you are!" Sora responded, pushing Riku down onto the bed and keeping a tight hold on his wrist. "Your mother was one, therefore you are one!" He said.

Riku cried harder. "I-I'm not!" He wailed. "I-I'll never b-be one, either!" He said. He let out another pained cry when he felt Sora's nails dig into his wrist. "You are a slave." The brunette confirmed with a growl. "You're _my _slave. You belong to me!" He said.

The silverette tried pulling his wrist away from Sora's clutch, sobbing and trying to struggle away once again. "You are a slave, your mother is a slave, your grandparents were slaves; you descend from a whole line of slavery. You are no different than they are." Sora muttered to the boy. "I-I did not! I'm a normal person!" Riku responded.

"You lived in a one-room shanty with a dirt floor and a single bed, just like every other slave on that farm. The poorest farmer lived better than you did." Sora spoke harshly. "All of you slaves are bought and sold like property. I purchased you from your owner and took you from your home; you legally belong to me and you are now nothing more than my new toy." He said.

Riku finally managed to tear himself away from Sora's grip. He climbed off of his bed and ran out of the room, wiping his eyes and crying and coughing. He wanted nothing to do with Sora for the rest of his life, it felt like.


	5. Chapter 5

"Wake up, Riku. You need to be up earlier than usual today." Axel nudged Riku's shoulder to get the boy out of bed. The silverette woke up a little bit after Axel had bothered him. "… What is it?" He questioned tiredly. Since he'd arrived at Sora's home, he had gradually become less and less of a morning person than he had been when he was younger. By now he was just a few inches shorter than Sora, but was a lot more muscular than his owner. A few years had passed since the dreadful revelation that he would never return to see his mother or the plantation he used to live on, however as the time passed he gradually began to accept his new way of living. It most certainly wasn't a bad life. He would be treated to good food every day, had a strong roof to sleep under, and was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. As long as he did what Sora told him, the two would get along fairly well.

Snow swirled outside, a few flakes sticking to the window and eventually melting away from the heat that was inside the house. Riku sat up in the bed, his much longer hair draping over his shoulders. He yawned softly and reached for the hairbrush that was on the small dresser next to his bed, running the bristles through his hair as he looked up at Axel. "Why do I have to be up at this hour?" He questioned. "It's early." He mumbled.

Axel snickered just slightly. "It is important." He said. "Last night, Sora requested that I wake you up early, to 'make you beautiful', as he described." He said. The silverette gave a confused stare to the redhead. "What do you mean?" He questioned, setting down the hairbrush once he'd gotten all of the little tangles out.

"He wants to take you on a special little business trip." Axel began. "An old partner of his family's has gone completely bankrupt. They own a few hundred acres of land and Sora is pretty sure that he can get all of it for a very cheap price. He's hoping that they're so desperate for money that they'll accept the offer in a heartbeat." He explained. "He believes, however, that taking a young girl along with him will make it more convincing and help them make their decision even quicker."

Axel stepped back for a moment and motioned towards the other side of the room, towards Riku's desk. Laying against the chair was a long dress. The small sleeves and shoulders hung off of the top of the chair and the bottom frills of the long fabric nearly touched the floor; it almost looked like a girl was sitting in the chair. A girl with a missing head and arms, that is.

Riku looked over to the dress and laughed softly. "Alright." He said, getting out of bed and standing up straight. "I think he just wants to see me in a dress." He walked over towards the chair and inspected it curiously. The dress was a light blue, having a low cut around the chest area and simple white trim where ever there were edges. "Interesting." He commented shortly, lifting the dress off of the chair and holding it up in front of him to compare his height with the length of the outfit.

Something else was on the chair; a white corset. Riku looked at the object, and then at Axel. "I have to wear that, too?" He pouted slightly. The servant responded with a nod. "If you are to be a female, you have to have a feminine waistline." He said. "You're already pretty thin, but it isn't thin enough." He said.

Riku sighed softly. "Alright, I suppose. Should I put it on now?" He asked. He had worn a corset once before just to try it out. It hadn't been the least bit comfortable to him and he had no clue how women always wore them to parties.

Axel nodded and picked the corset up from the chair. "Take your shirt and pants off. You can't wear any normal clothing underneath this dress." He said. Riku complied, taking all but his underwear off without a problem. Axel had dressed him before, so he saw no problem in undressing in front of him. The redheaded servant wrapped the corset around Riku's waist in the proper spot and began to tie it up from the bottom to the top.

Riku let out a small huff of air, the constricting feeling never ceasing to feel awkward and unusual to him. Along with simply looking rather stupid with it on, it made for a difficult time breathing, the tighter it got. A few minutes passed before the corset was completely tied up. "I can put the dress on you now." Axel said. By now, the dress had been put back in the chair by Riku. Axel picked it back up, moving the layers of white frills that were underneath the outer, visible part of the skirt to find the empty middle. "Lift your arms up." He instructed. Once the silverette did so, Axel slid the dress over him.

The dress its' self felt rather comfortable in Riku's opinion. If it weren't for that damn corset, he would have actually liked wearing it. "Sit sideways on the chair now so I can fix your hair." Axel said, turning the chair to the side for Riku. He couldn't sit in it normally because it would be a slight challenge for his hair to be put up with a big chunk of fancy wood in the way.

Once Riku managed to sit down; it took him a moment with the corset on; Axel went back over to the Riku's little bedside table and took his hairbrush. He walked back and began brushing Riku's hair despite how the silverette had brushed it just minutes before. There were still a few tangles in the back of his hair. "Did you try brushing this at all?" He questioned.

Riku fidgeted sheepishly. "I didn't think that you were going to be brushing my hair." He said in more of a mumble. The servant made a light chuckle and ran the brush through Riku's hair a few more times before stopping. He reached over to the desk and grabbed a white hair tie—along with that on the desk, there was a bunch of makeup. Riku was both surprised and not surprised that Axel had gotten into his room without him waking up to put those things there.

The white hair tie almost made Riku's hair like it had put its' self up. Axel simply put it into a neat little bun, a few strands hanging loose to make it look not so stiff and perfect. After he had put the bun in Riku's hair, he grabbed a small comb-looking object. On it were three gems, a large blue diamond-looking one in the center and two crystal clear ones on the left and right of the center jewel. The comb must have been made of some sort of shiny, white metal; despite the hard, dense material used to make it, it was intricately carved into, making it look very pretty. Axel placed the small comb behind the band that held Riku's hair into a bun to keep it in place.

Riku tilted his head slightly and watched one particular strand of hair go from one side of his face to the other. He found this process to be rather uninteresting and found that doing simple and stupid things like playing with his loose hair was more amusing at the time. "Stop that." Axel said, grabbing Riku's chin to hold his head still. The silverette frowned slightly and let out a sigh. "Okay." He mumbled.

Axel pulled the makeup closer to himself across the desk. "Do you think you'll need face powder?" Axel questioned more to himself than to Riku. "You're already pretty pale…" He studied Riku for a few moments. "I don't think you'll need any." He reached to grab some sort of brush-looking thing before he suddenly froze and removed his hand quickly. "I'm going to get makeup on your dress if I do that." He made a little scowl for a moment in thought before he went over to the door. "Stay there." He said before leaving the room.

Riku sat there in silence. He sighed again, however made a snicker afterwards. "What a fashion guru." He commented once Axel wasn't within earshot. The servant arrived a few moments later with a pillowcase in his hands. He walked over to Riku and put each corner of the pillowcase on his shoulders, draping the rest of it down his chest. "There. Now if any of the powder falls off, it'll fall onto this instead of the dress." He said, sounding rather satisfied with his quick thinking. "Now sit up straight so I can put the makeup on." He said.

Riku had a feeling that Axel wasn't so great at putting makeup on and suddenly felt rather hesitant for him to be putting it on his face. He decided to sit through it anyways and hope that it wouldn't come out too terrible. "Close your eyes." Axel instructed, waiting for a moment for Riku to do so. Once Riku did, he took a little bottle looking object and pulled a brush out of it.

Riku could feel Axel putting something on his eyelids. He had no clue what it was, but he had honestly thought that it felt a bit good. He relaxed the most he could in the chair with the corset on as Axel moved from one eye to the other. After that, he felt his eyelashes being ever-so-slightly pulled by something. Riku knew at the very least that it was… mascara? … Some sort of makeup that related to eyes was called mascara, but he couldn't recall what. After Axel had finished both of his eyes, Riku kept his eyes closed. He felt a soft brush dab against both of his cheeks a few times, and a sudden light snicker from Axel. "What is it?" Riku questioned. "Oh, nothing…" Was Axel's only response. It made the silverette feel very suspicious of the older male.

The final thing that was put on was the lipstick. Riku knew for sure that it was lipstick; that was the only makeup item that he actually knew the name of. He had yet to open his eyes as he was slightly horrified of what his face would look like. The longer he delayed seeing himself, the better, he thought.

There was a moment of silence before Riku started to become somewhat impatient. "What are you doing now?" He questioned. "I am admiring my wonderful handiwork." The servant said before carefully putting some lipstick on Riku's lips. The redhead's words made Riku even more reluctant to look at himself in the mirror.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now." Axel smiled and pulled the pillowcase off of Riku's shoulders. It had been a good call for him to put the little sheet of fabric over Riku's dress, as there most certainly had been some pink powder on the white fabric. It was very easy to see. Riku opened his eyes in an almost hesitant manner, looking around for a moment. "Mirror?" He asked.

Axel reached out and grabbed Riku's hand. "I'll help you out of the chair." He said. Once Riku was able to stand up, Axel suddenly made a little gasp. "Your nails could be painted along with the makeup!" He said.

Riku snickered at Axel's feminine behavior. "Whatever you want." He said. He stiffly walked over to the mirror that was in his room. The mirror was a bit taller than Riku was, so he was able to see his whole body, not just his face.

Upon seeing himself in the mirror, the silverette had an almost startled expression. "Geez, I really do look like a girl!" He said. He had pink blush on his face, pink lipstick to match. The eye shadow was a very light blue and matched both his hair and the dress he wore. His eyelashes looked a lot thicker than they normally did, as well. All in all he thought he was a pretty convincing looking girl.

"There is one last thing you need before you can fully look like a girl at your age, however." Axel said all of the sudden. "You don't have any breasts." He stated. Riku looked down at his chest for a moment. "Oh." He responded shortly. "… Well, some girls don't have very large ones…" He said a bit slowly.

"True, but your chest is absolutely perfectly flat. A fifteen year old girl would have small ones at the very least." Axel responded. Riku looked away in slight disappointment. He'd for the most part liked every part of this 'dress up' game except for the fact that he would have to have breasts. "How am I supposed to have fake ones and make them convincing?" He questioned, looking up at Axel.

Axel was quiet in thought for a few moments. "That dress is too low cut for us to just stuff it…" He said. He was quiet for a few moments before simply giving up. "Breasts aren't important." He indicated. "We'll just put some distracting jewelry on you and they'll just think you're a late bloomer."

"Oh. Alright." Riku said. "Where is the jewelry, then?" He inquired curiously. "Sit back down again in the chair. I'll go get some, along with nail polish and some shoes." He randomly looked up and down Riku's body for a moment. "And a needle." He added before walking out the door.

"… Needle?" Riku questioned. He also looked up and down his body in confusion, thinking he had torn a part of the dress somewhere and Axel needed to mend it. He wasn't able to see any needles and he frowned just slightly. "Maybe it's on my back somewhere." He murmured. He waddled back over to the chair and sat down, finding the movement a bit awkward at first. Corsets were so restricting. He was going to take the one he wore off as soon as possible.

Axel returned about ten minutes later with the things he said he would; some blue open-toed shoes with short high-heels, a bottle of similarly blue nail polish, and a somewhat small box tucked between his arm. He went over to the desk and set all of the objects down. "Let me paint your nails first." He said. "Set your hand on the desk."

Riku set his hand out on the desk flat and still, watching as Axel opened the bottle of nail polish and rather expertly beginning to quickly paint over his nails. It most certainly couldn't have been the first time he'd done something like this to someone.

Once all ten nails of his hands had been painted, Axel crouched down onto the floor. "And now your toenails." He said. He looked around for a moment to try and see if he could find some sort of box or stool to prop Riku's foot on, but couldn't see anything. He frowned a bit. "Oh well." He murmured as he began to paint the rest of Riku's nails.

Once he was totally finished, he took the shoes off from the desk and slipped them onto Riku's feet. The shoe almost looked like a sandal, the entire top of it being nothing more than a few straps to hold the smooth bottom to the wearer's foot. A few of the little straps also wrapped around Riku's ankles.

Axel stood up straight and opened the box. Inside of it, at first glance, was a pair of long gloves. "Put these on. I painted your nails just in case your gloves were taken off for whatever reason." He said. As Riku took the gloves and began to put them on, Axel had taken a nice looking necklace out of the box. He stepped behind Riku and put it on around the boy's neck, clasping the little lock shut to keep the necklace from falling off. "With how long the gloves are, I don't believe you'll be needing any bracelets; you won't need any rings because of those either." He said. "And with how high your shoes go, you won't need any anklets." He said. "The only thing you could truly be missing right now are earrings. Will you let me pierce your ears?" He probed curiously.

Riku once again got a slightly hesitant expression. "… Pierce them?" He repeated back to the elder male. He was quiet for a few moments. "Is it going to hurt?" He questioned. Axel shook his head in response. "It just feels like someone squeezed your ear a bit too hard." He said. He pulled from the box a near creepy-looking device that Riku could only truly describe as a hole puncher for paper, but there was a spike on the end of it instead of just a circular cutter like what one would make holes in pieces of paper with. The thought of needles made the silverette slightly squeamish. He closed his eyes. "Just be quick about it." He said.

Riku felt Axel rub both of his earlobes with something momentarily. Riku closed his eyes a bit tighter, preparing himself for the oncoming aching feeling. A few moments passed before he heard the redhead's voice suddenly coo, "All done~"

Riku opened his eyes and reached up to touch his ears, looking positively confused. He could feel an earring in that ear. He reached up and felt the other ear; there was an earring there, too. "That quick?" He questioned in bewilderment.

Axel snickered and nodded. "It's a very fast process when you have the correct tools." He said. "And with the numbing foam I used, you probably shouldn't even feel the pain that people normally get after piercing their ears." He said.

Riku felt around his ear for just a moment before finding that he actually could not feel his ear. "Interesting." He commented. "Is there anything else I need?" He asked. Axel nodded quickly. "An umbrella. It's snowing outside and I don't want all of my hard work to go to waste before you even get in the carriage." He said.

"Oh. Okay~" Riku said. For whatever reason, when he was younger, he really liked playing with umbrellas. He'd always been warned to never open them indoors, but would open them anyways. He liked building small dome-like rooms with four or five umbrellas and pretend he was camping in a forest.

Thinking back on it, Riku had the slight urge to build another umbrella-dome, but he most likely would not fit underneath it anymore. He felt a little disappointed at the thought but decided to shrug it off. "Is it in the one umbrella holder next to the front door?" He asked curiously. The redheaded servant shook his head. "You'll need a specific one to match your dress." He said.

Riku gave a little stare to Axel, a bit surprised that there was also an umbrella to go with the outfit. The designer of the piece of clothing must have thought of everything. "Let me go look for it real quick~" Axel said, leaving the room once again. He returned a lot quicker than last time; when he came back, he had a large blue umbrella in his hands. Not shockingly, however, he also had once again, another box. This one was much larger than the jewelry box. "What's in there?" The silverette asked curiously. "This is a hat that I found." Axel said. "It'd work perfectly with the dress." He grinned slightly. Riku let out a little sigh, not entirely wanting to put on more clothes. "Alright." He said. Axel handed opened the box and held the hat out to Riku.

Riku looked at the hat somewhat curiously. It nearly reminded him of the hats he would see at horse races; just not as stupidly huge and flashy. It was actually a pretty nice little hat, most of it being a soft blue color with a white ribbon wrapping around the part that would allow people to wear it as a hat in the first place. Riku took the hat from Axel and put it on his head. "Like this?" He asked.

Axel studied Riku's appearance for a moment before taking the hat off, smoothing Riku's hair back quickly, and then putting it on his head again, but angled. "Cute." He smiled. He then held the umbrella out to Riku. "And this is the last thing. Nothing more, I promise." He said.

Riku felt thankful that he wouldn't have to put on any more clothing. "Thank you." He said with a small smile. "Should I go out and wait for Sora near the door?" He asked. The servant nodded and headed towards the door. "I'm sure you can get there yourself. I need to help Sora with his clothing as well—I promise it won't take nearly as long, though." He said before leaving the room.

Riku watched for a moment before going over towards the door, heading the opposite direction of Axel and making his way towards the front of the house. He stopped at the staircase to the first floor with an oncoming feeling of dreadfulness. He wasn't sure he would be able to get down the stairs with the ridiculous corset.

It took at least three minutes for Riku to carefully make his way down the stairs. Along with the trouble with the corset, he had never walked in heels before. He had nearly missed a step and fallen multiple times. The dress he wore was rather poufy; he couldn't see three steps ahead of himself with the darn thing. He couldn't wait to leave so he could come back and take it off as soon as possible.

About ten minutes passed before Sora finally showed up. He looked a lot fancier and professional than Riku did, he felt. The silverette couldn't help but blush slightly and admire his master; the outfit he was wearing was a nice black suit and a red tie. Along with that he wore some nice black pants and shiny dark shoes that clicked slightly when he walked on tile.

Sora went down towards Riku and made a grin at the sight of him. Once close enough, he reached out and took Riku's hand, bowing down and kissing the top of it. "Madame." He greeted. Riku's blush deepened; the makeup he wore made him look even more embarrassed than he actually was. "Y-you don't need to do that…" He stammered.

"Why not?" The brunette questioned, standing up straight. "That is how one should always greet a mistress." He said with a smile. "You look very lovely like that." He complimented. Riku simply stood there in silent embarrassment for a second before turning his head away and closing his eyes, fearing that if he looked at Sora any longer, his face would be as red as a tomato. "Can we go outside now? My feet hurt." He said.

Sora snickered softly. "Alright." He took a different umbrella from the small holder that was next to the door and opened it for Riku. "Ladies first~" He cooed. Riku glared at Sora once again in embarrassment. "Stop that!" He said with a huff before going outside and opening his own umbrella. The carriage was already waiting for them just outside the front door; Riku was glad, as he didn't want to walk far with the shoes he wore both because of the snow on the ground and because he had trouble walking with them. He went over to the door and opened it, staring at Sora for a short moment to make sure he wouldn't make some female-based comment towards him before going inside quickly and shutting his umbrella. There hadn't even really been a need for the umbrella, as there were only very few snowflakes on top of it.

Sora entered the carriage a moment later, closing his own umbrella and propping it against the wall of the carriage. "We'll have to ride in the carriage for a few hours to get there." The brunette said as he took Riku's umbrella and put it next to his own. The youngest of the pair made a little groan. "I'll be trapped in this corset for forever." He whined simply as the carriage began to move.


	6. Chapter 6 :Lemon, skip if needed:

**WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING!**

**This chapter is a ****_lemon_****! Do not read this if you do not wish to read about sexual acts! **

So if you were wondering what happened, I'll sum up this chapter. Sora was able to purchase the land and is very happy about it.

P.S., This is my first published lemon. This causes for celebration. *drinks a shot glass of chocolate milk*

* * *

Sora and Riku were sitting in the carriage with one another, both panting and moaning and kissing one another senseless. The meeting between Sora and the bankrupt family had ended and Sora had acquired all of their land; now, they were returning. Neither seemed willing to continue wearing their restricting clothing, however.

Riku took his hat off and the small comb out of his hair, quickly undoing the bun and placing the objects on the seat. Riku was sitting on Sora's lap at the time. He slipped out of his dress quickly, basically just tossing the dress onto the seat with the hat and shoes; he had taken those off much earlier before their little session began. He moaned and slid one arm around Sora's waist, using his other hand to undo the buttons of Sora's tuxedo jacket.

Once all of the buttons were undone, Sora smiled and slid the jacket off of himself. He ran his tongue across Riku's lips and pressed his tongue into his mouth. Riku immediately complied with the more intimate way of kissing, pressing his tongue against the elder's and moaning. Since he had not been allowed to wear clothing underneath his dress, the youngster was only in his underwear now. He sensually rubbed himself against Sora, moaning needily at the friction and panting. His little 'problem' was very obvious; Sora could feel it through both Riku's clothing and his own.

Sora had been wearing a white shirt underneath the tuxedo and therefore had not been nearly-fully undressed like Riku was. He lifted Riku off of him and pushed him onto the floor of the carriage all of the sudden, climbing on top of him and smirking just slightly. He leaned down and flicked his tongue across Riku's nipple, causing the boy to squirm delightfully and let out a shuddery gasp.

Sora licked and sucked on both of Riku's nipples, using his fingers to play with the one he wasn't sucking on. He kissed down Riku's chest and down his stomach, making his way ever so closer to where Riku felt the most deprived. The silverette tilted his head back and let out an erotic "Ooh…" as his needs were taken care of. Sora had removed the boy's underwear and had began sucking on his cock, his expert tongue swirling around the head.

Riku moaned and panted, shifting his hips upwards in the desperate attempt to feel more of the wet heat of Sora's mouth. They had done these things plenty of times before, however Riku never got tired of the wonderful feelings. "S-Sora…" He breathed out heavily.

Sora smiled slightly and took all of Riku's pre-matured dick into his mouth, rubbing his tongue against the bottom of his shaft and lightly tugging and squeezing his balls as well as running his other hand against Riku's leg on the occasion. He gave the boy a few hard sucks before pulling away and lapping at the very tip of the head for a short moment before completely pulling away, leaving Riku whimpering and yearning for even more than what he had received.

Quickly, Riku had turned himself around onto his hands and knees. He switched from his hands to resting on his elbows, as he always eventually ended up doing that when they were in this position. He looked back at his owner and panted softly, presenting himself to Sora with an embarrassed blush.

Sora smiled at the sight and ran his hands over Riku's butt for a moment before spreading his cheeks apart, making Riku gasp with pleasure. "I-I n-need it n-now, Sora." The silverette managed to breathe out.

The elder of the two leaned closer and slowly licked around the small opening. He could feel Riku shudder as he spread his hole with two of his fingers and drove his tongue inside of him. Riku bit his wrist lightly and let out a muffled "Mmf!" in the attempt to quiet his moans.

Sora smiled and pushed his tongue as far as he could manage into the silverette. It wasn't very far, but it caused the young boy a fair amount of pleasure. "S-Sora!" The youngster moaned out desperately. "P-please, more!"

Sora pulled away and slid a finger into Riku's entrance, probing around and curling his finger inside of the boy. He smiled again at the cute sounds Riku would make every time he would move his finger in a different way.

Riku moved his body backwards and onto Sora's finger, anxious to feel the intrusion go deeper inside of him. "A-ah!" He panted out as he felt a second finger press into him. The wonderful fingers were thrusted in and out of his small hole quicker and quicker as time progressed. Riku was on the verge of cumming simply because of the fingering. "N-now, S-Sora." He said in a pleading voice.

Sora undid the zipper of his pants, moving his underwear out of the way to reveal his erection. He stroked himself for just a short moment before shuffling closer to the young boy and placing his cock at his entrance. He slowly pushed himself into Riku, letting out a pleasured moan as he did so. Riku whimpered from the brunette's size compared to his still-growing body, but it was more of a whimper of pleasure than it was pain. He needed to adjust just for a few short moments before he began pushing himself back onto his master's cock.

Sora moaned. He grabbed Riku by his hips and began thrusting into him, wasting no time in setting a quick pace. "A-aah," Riku moaned out every time he felt Sora's dick push into him, wanting it to go deeper and deeper each time. "Aah, f-faster, S-Soraah!" He moaned.

Sora complied to Riku's request and pushed into him quicker, biting his lip just slightly and moaning. He enjoyed Riku's little hole and how often the boy would squeeze himself around him. He pushed himself into the boy until he was fully sheathed, pulling his cock out about halfway and then fully thrusting back into the silverette.

Riku let out a loud, pleasured moan when Sora had gone deeper into him. "I-I'm gonna—" He was cut off for a moment as he released another moan. "C-cum s-soon." He managed to stammer. Sora smirked just a bit and moved even quicker, able to slide in and out of the youngster's tight heat rapidly and easily. He removed one of his hands from his hip and began stroking the boy's neglected cock, helping him along to his pure bliss.

Only a few more thrusts sent Riku over the edge. He squirmed lightly and cried out "Sora!" again as he came, still being stroked by his seme during his orgasm. He pushed back onto the other male repetitively, trying to pleasure himself as much as possible. Once the cum stopped flowing from his cock, he panted and moaned exhaustively as Sora still continued to thrust into him.

Sora began to thrust harder into Riku, wanting to cum as well. He stifled a groan as he pushed himself absolutely as far and deep as he could into the boy, semen filling the silverette's hole quickly and dripping out. Sora thrusted into Riku lightly a few more times before pulling out, panting and smiling at the boy, watching him as his cum slid down the boy's legs. He leaned close and licked away at the opaque substance, causing Riku to whimper and groan once he felt Sora's tongue at his hole again. A soft slurping sound was occasionally made as Sora cleaned him off, causing Riku to blush and smile.

The two laid down on the floor of the carriage next to one another. Despite the carriage typically being cold, especially on snowy days, it was very warm on the inside due to the two's activities. Sora wrapped an arm around Riku and smiled, giving him a short peck on the lips. Riku smiled and snuggled closer to the elder, much too tired to re-dress and sit on one of the seats. He decided that he would simply fall asleep on the floor and he was perfectly comfortable in doing so.


End file.
